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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26163760">A Doll’s Face</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/smileyjunior/pseuds/smileyjunior'>smileyjunior</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Killing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Case Fic, Excessive smoking, Explicit Language, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Kidnapping, Past Drug Addiction, Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 02:40:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>36,293</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26163760</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/smileyjunior/pseuds/smileyjunior</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A twisted case gets more and more complicated at each turn, especially when certain elements hit close to home for Holder.  Once again, the detectives put everything on the line to solve the case and it gets more dangerous as time goes on.</p><p>12/30/2020 ALL EDITS COMPLETE - (SOMEONE STOP ME FROM DOING MORE)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Stephen Holder &amp; Sarah Linden</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Day 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This story takes place post Rosie Larsen case by about 2 months.  It also changes the end of season 2; Linden never left the job and she and Holder are still partners.  Linden still has the house on the island.</p><p> </p><p>If anyone knows Veena Sud, or knows how to get in touch with her—or if anyone could send her a chapter of my work I just really want to ask her if my writing is accurate to the characters. It’s important to me, haha.<br/>I’m kind of kidding, but I’m also not.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>September 3, 2013<br/>Day 1</p><p>The sky above Seattle was dark and cloudy, which admittedly, was not something new. Just about 12.5 miles outside of Seattle on Vashon Island, Sarah Linden looked out of her kitchen window, the raindrops that had fallen earlier were still on the surface. She held a mug of lukewarm coffee in her hand, and watched the raindrops drying outside on the cool glass, knowing there would be more of them soon. </p><p>Sarah was about to leave for work at the Seattle Police Station on the mainland, but was taking the moment to appreciate her surroundings. She had come to enjoy these early mornings spent in solitude.</p><p>After the Rosie Larsen case 10-months ago, Sarah had (still) been without a home. So after the case was closed she didn’t waste any time, and started to look at some properties on the mainland. But she found herself drawn to the island; away from the hustle and bustle of the city and suburbs, instead to fields of green, peace, and quiet. As Sarah stood at her kitchen window, she was reaffirmed that getting the house on the island had been a good idea, and was more sure of it then ever. </p><p>Her chosen sweater for the day—grey and white with a blue and red pattern—lay across her kitchen chair, and she already wore her jeans and boots. Her hair rested across her back and shoulders of the white t-shirt she wore and her jacket hung on a coat rack by the front door with a table next to it where she kept her keys and phone. All of her essentials close by.</p><p>It was almost time to go. Sarah put her mug in the sink and rinsed it before she went over to the table. She picked the sweater up off of the kitchen chair and pulled it over her head, pulling her hair out from underneath and up into a ponytail with the tie around her wrist. She took her badge and gun off the counter and put them both on her hip, slipping her gun into the holster that was hanging on her belt. Just as she did so, her cell phone that she had left on the small table in the hallway started to ring. Sarah walked over and picked it up flipping it open.</p><p>“This is Detective Linden.”</p><p>——</p><p>Stephen Holder pulled into the parking lot of the Seattle Police Station in downtown Seattle, trying to finish his cigarette before he went inside. It was cold this time of year, but the combination of his hoodie and jacket kept him considerably warm. There was also the cigarette, each time he took a hit he got his nicotine fix but he also felt the warm air fill his lungs and insides, so he didn’t mind turning off the car and waiting. Looking around the parking lot he could see his partner hadn’t arrived yet, so he had the time. </p><p>From his hoodie pocket he reached for his phone and went to open it when suddenly someone knocked on his window. Holder jumped, his head hitting the roof of the car and the phone went flying into the seat next to him. Turning to the window he saw a smirking Sarah Linden right outside. His partner barely smiled, and it didn’t escape his attention that one of the few times she did it was because she was pleased that she had caused him to hurt himself. Well, whatever worked. </p><p>He pressed the window button on the door to roll down the window, “Damn Linden, the hell was that for?”</p><p>The smirk was gone from her face as soon as it had appeared, “We got a case, you want to drive?”</p><p>Holder rubbed his head dramatically and shrugged, “Ya know I may have a concussion... you might need to.”</p><p>“Okay let’s go,” she started to walk away.</p><p>“Hey, Linden! It was a joke! Get in ‘ere.”</p><p>Sarah rolled her eyes pursing her lips, she went to the passenger side and opened the door sitting down and putting on her seatbelt. Holder started the car, and retrieved a box of cigs from the cup holder holding it out for her. Sarah took one and nodded her thanks, retrieving a lighter from her pocket.</p><p>“Where to?” Holder asked turning the key to start the engine.</p><p>——</p><p>The address was listed in the South Lake Union neighborhood, which wasn’t far from the precinct in downtown. The address where Sarah had directed Holder was busy with police activity and civilian onlookers curious to see what was going on. Holder pulled up to the curb, outside of a two-story brick building with a Chinese Restaurant on the first floor.</p><p>“Ya know, if it weren’t for the yellow tape and patrol cars all the nosey people,” Holder said sarcastically, “I wouldn’t think this was a crime scene.”</p><p>Both detectives got out of the car, Sarah put out her cigarette and started walking towards the building.</p><p>“It’s on the second floor,” she said ignoring his snark, “let’s go.” She had already walked ahead and didn’t notice the slight falter in Holder’s movement when she mentioned the second floor.</p><p>An officer held up the yellow tape for them to duck under, Sarah nodded her thanks. Holder, being slightly distracted, inadvertently walked right into it having not ducked down far enough.</p><p>“Damn homie! Couldn’t lift it any higher for a brotha?” Holder cried.</p><p>“Not his fault you’re freakishly tall,” Sarah called back to him.</p><p>“That hurts Linden.” </p><p>She turned and looked at him, her “normal” scowling expression on her face, “You’ll get over it. Stop harassing patrol and let’s go.”</p><p>“Business as usual,” Holder muttered under his breath.</p><p>Holder and Sarah walked to a brown door right next to the Chinese Restaurant, where another patrol officer stood and held open the door, she saw that just inside of it was a flight of stairs. The detectives made their way upstairs, and when they reached the second landing a CSU tech held out a box of latex gloves for them, they each took a pair and slid them on. When Sarah looked up after putting on the gloves she nearly froze where she stood.</p><p>Everywhere there were naked human sized plastic dolls, or mannequins, she couldn’t be sure if there was a difference. Some of them had faces and hair, others didn’t, hung from the ceiling, making it hard to walk through the room, some had missing body parts, some were missing full bodies and just limbs hung from the ceiling. Whether hanging or standing, it looked as though the dolls filled up the entire room, it was impossible to count how many there could be and it was incredibly eerie. Snapping herself out of her stupor, Sarah made her way further into the room.</p><p>“CSU’s gotta love this,” Holder said quietly, as he followed her close behind.</p><p>Linden couldn’t argue, a doll she passed had half a face and was missing plugs of hair.</p><p>“Over here Detectives,” came the voice of the coroner.</p><p>A small group of CSU’s stood in the middle of the room, as they parted Sarah saw why they were there. A rope hung around a beam above and was wrapped around a naked woman’s neck. Her skin was a blue tinged color and her eyes were hemorrhaged. The most jarring thing, in addition to her being left in the nude, was that she wore a beautiful face of makeup. Her lips were a strong bold red color, and she wore perfect eyeliner and mascara. She also had eyeshadow, blush, and makeup covered bruises along her arms and legs.</p><p>Sarah moved closer to the body, “We have an I.D. on her?”</p><p>The coroner shook her head, “Nothing, we’ll be running her prints through the system. Then we’ll see if we can get a hit off of facial recognition, if not we’ll have to keep her as a Jane Doe. She’s approximately 35-40 years old, and cause of death appears to be strangulation.”</p><p>“Yeah no shit...” said Holder as he walked around the body.</p><p>“Holder,” Sarah snapped and he shut up.</p><p>The coroner continued as though nothing had been said, “I put time of death around 1 to 4 a.m. this morning.”</p><p>“Do we know who found her?” Sarah asked.</p><p>“Restaurant owner downstairs. He said he saw someone suspicious leaving, he waited ten minutes before he came up here,” said uniform.</p><p>“To this hell hole,” Holder said. When he saw the scathing look the coroner shot him he threw his arms up, “What? It’s like Silence of the Lambs or something up in here.”</p><p>“Alright,” Sarah spoke before Holder said something stupid he would regret, “we’ll head back to the station, let us know when we can see her.”</p><p>The coroner nodded her assent and Linden headed towards the exit nearly walking right into a doll with hair sticking up at all ends and only one eye and arm. Holder jogged to keep up with her.</p><p>“I thought we agreed that you don’t need to say everything that comes into your head,” Sarah said with a harsh bite in her words.</p><p>“My bad,” Holder said, “honestly though this place is creeping me the fuck out out.”</p><p>There was something about his tone that made Sarah turn around and register the expression on his face. She wouldn’t necessarily call it fear, but something akin to it was in his eyes. She turned back around, “Let’s head back, CSU will bring us their findings, then we can try to start piecing things together.”</p><p>——</p><p>Back at the precinct, Sarah and Holder headed directly to their office. Sarah erased the whiteboard that still had details from their last case. Once it was blank she grabbed the black dry erase marker on the small silver tray beneath the board and uncapped it. At the top of the board Sarah wrote “JANE DOE” and started writing on the board what they knew about the case—which granted wasn’t a whole lot, just a description of their victim and most likely cause of death—but CSU would be sending the photos that they had of the scene at the very least, soon. </p><p>Recalling the scene made Sarah think of Holder’s uncharacteristic reaction. She looked back at him, he hadn’t said much on the ride back to the station, which was also very out of character for him. Looking at him now Sarah saw he had a vacant stare, and was throwing his little black basketball from hand to hand. Something was off, so she cleared her throat and put the marker down.</p><p>“What’s going on?” Sarah asked, but Holder didn’t seem to have heard her, “Holder?”</p><p>He jolted as though he had come back to himself, “‘Sup?”</p><p>“You wanna talk about it?”</p><p>“‘Bout what?”</p><p>Linden scrutinized him, “You really want to play that game?”</p><p>The pace that Holder was throwing the ball picked up, then he sighed and put the ball down on the desk, “I mean it’s nothing...”</p><p>She arched an eyebrow, “Doesn’t seem like nothing,” Holder clenched his jaw, and she looked at him expectantly, “I’m still waiting.”</p><p>“That place? I didn’t think it wasn’t real.” </p><p>Linden wasn’t sure how to respond, she chose he next words carefully, “What does that mean?”</p><p>Holder sniffed, he picked the ball back up and began squeezing it in between his hands, “This one time, when I was tweaked out of my head... and this other tweaker and I...we were just, ya know being stupid and whatever breakin’ into places for fun. And he said he knew this place right? Said I’d like what I found inside. So he takes me through this door, and there’s a staircase and we went upstairs, and I saw these bodies hangin’ from the ceiling. Seriously freaked me the fuck out. But I was high and figured it was in my head. Like, retribution for the sins of the doer. </p><p>“But it was real. I mean obviously it was real, I saw it again today. Coulda been a real body in there and I wouldn’t have known.” He blew out a breath and laughed coldly, “Just some stupid shit. I saw that door again today and... I just...” Holder shook his head and looked up at his partner, “Sorry Linden, don’t know what the fuck is wrong with me.”</p><p>Sarah didn’t say anything at first, her eyes looked over every inch of his face, then, “Are you going to be able to work this case?”</p><p>Holder scowled, “The fuck are you talkin’ about?”</p><p>“I need to know Holder.”</p><p>“Yeah! Yeah I can work the goddamn case!” Holder rubbed his hands over his face, “I’m gonna go have a smoke, be right back.” He slammed the ball onto the desk and stood up, his chair clattering and colliding with his desk before he walked out of the office, leaving the door open behind him.</p><p>Sarah went back to the white board, and picked the dry erase marker back up, but didn’t start to write anything. Somewhere is the back of her mind, she registered guilt at having to had asked Holder what she had asked him. But the more logical part of her—the cop, the detective—knew that it had needed to be done.</p><p>A knock at the open office door saved her from her moral dilemma, and an uniform came in carrying a manilla folder, “I have the crime scene photos from CSU?” </p><p>“Thanks,” Sarah took the folder from him and shut the door. Opening the envelope, she saw dozens of photos of the dolls in addition to those of their Jane Doe. That same small part of her felt animosity at the fact she had to hang these up, and basically rub them in Holder’s face. But she reasoned he would understand why it had to be done, after all, he said he could work the case. </p><p>They had a job to do.</p><p>Looking down Sarah saw that most of the photographs were of the dolls themselves; she made sure to separate them from the ones of their Jane Doe. Then she carefully labeled each photo: the close up photos of their victim including her face full of make up, and the bruises that had been covered with more makeup. Though it was an intricate process, it was one she was used to after several years of repeating the actions for each case she had ever worked, and the whole process just flowed. </p><p>The office door opened and Holder came back inside, neither of them mentioned what had happened before he left. Holder jerked his head to the doorway, “You closed the door?” </p><p>Sarah gave a curt nod without looking up from her work, “Victim is naked, figured it was best.” </p><p>Holder mulled over her words before he gave a slow nod and closed the door before he retook his seat, “No I.D. yet?” He looked up at the board and picked up his basketball.</p><p>“Nope,” she looked close at the image of Jane Doe’s face and spoke quietly, “why leave her naked, but do her makeup?”</p><p>“Sick perv?” </p><p>Before she could respond, the phone on her desk rang and she picked it up, “Linden.” </p><p>Holder watched as she listened for a moment, “We’re on our way.” She hung up and looked at him. “Coroner’s ready.”</p><p>“Hella convenient timing.”</p><p>——</p><p>The morgue was always cold, it had to be. The cold temperatures helped to preserve the bodies of the dead that lay in the morgue’s storage. But a chill that had nothing to do with temperature always accompanied whoever went there. No matter how many times she had gone, Sarah would never quite be used to it.</p><p>She and Holder stood next to the coroner and the metal slab that held their Jane Doe. </p><p>“We have an ID,” the coroner said, standing on the other side of the slab, “her name is Stacey Abrams, 37 years old. Her uncle is on the way to I.D. her. Cause of death was strangulation, she died at approximately 1 to 4 a.m. this morning.” The coroner picked up Stacey’s lifeless blue tinged hand, “She didn’t go quietly. Defense wounds on her hands, arms, and legs, three of her fingers are broken.”</p><p>“Wait why can’t we tell the fingers are broken?” asked Holder indicating the body.</p><p>Looking down Linden realized he had a good point, Stacey’s hands looked perfectly fine if not a bit blue, and they certainly didn’t look broken.</p><p>“That would be the strangulation, the fingers were swollen because they broke—but then because of C.O.D. the rest of body swelled up too, and her skin pigment turned blue. Your vic’s murder was disguised as a hanging, obviously she didn’t hang herself.”</p><p>“Any fingerprints? Fluids? Sexual assault?” asked Linden.</p><p>“Vaginal tearing is present, but there were no fluids, and no fingerprints.”</p><p>“So our perp used a rubber,” said Holder.</p><p>The coroner grimaced, “I don’t think so.”</p><p>Sarah’s eyes snapped to her, “What do you mean?” </p><p>“I think your vic was washed and made up. They found traces of a soap substance over her entire body. But then someone used makeup to cover up the bruising and defensive wounds, and then of course the makeup on her face.” </p><p>Nobody said anything for a moment.</p><p>“That’s why he left her there,” Sarah looked at Stacey’s face, “she’s a doll. A made up doll, and that’s all she was to him.”</p><p>“That’s sick.” Holder muttered, and Linden didn’t disagree, nor did the coroner.</p><p>Sarah sighed, “Thanks, send us your report when you can.”</p><p>——</p><p>Holder and Linden waited for the Uncle to arrive, when he did they stood inside the autopsy theater with him as he confirmed the I.D. looking at his nieces face, and the coroner replaced the sheet over Stacey’s head. </p><p>Afterwards they stepped out into the hallway with him, Mr. Abrams was shaking from head to toe even though he wore a thick long brown coat.</p><p>Sarah looked up him, “Mr. Abrams, if we could just ask you a few questions about Stacey.” </p><p>Mr. Abrams nodded and rubbed a hand through his hair, “Yeah, just... yeah. I can’t believe this, I mean...” he didn’t finish the sentence.</p><p>She nodded, “We’re very sorry for your loss, we’ll make this as brief as possible. When was the last time you saw your niece?”</p><p>“It was um... last week. She came by for lunch.”</p><p>“Did she seem any different then usual?”</p><p>“N-no. She was normal, happy even. She said she had met someone.”</p><p>“Met someone?” Sarah grabbed hold of this information, “Who did she meet?”</p><p>“She didn’t say, but she was... happy.”</p><p>“Had she not been happy before?” asked Holder.</p><p>Mr. Abrams paused, “She had... Stacey had some issues before,” he looked ashamed, “drugs. But she’s been clean for 3 months now. I went to one of her chip ceremonies, I was so proud,” his voice cracked, “she worked so hard to get clean.” He shut his eyes and breathed deeply.</p><p>“Did Stacey have any close co-workers, or friends we could speak to?”</p><p>Mr. Abrams shook his head, “No, no, when she got clean she sort of, let go of everything else. Not that she was being rude or anything thing just...” he trailed off.</p><p>“She was focused on her recovery,” Holder said in a grave voice.</p><p>Mr. Abrams let out a single sob before clenching his lips shut, and nodded. </p><p>Sarah’s hand went into her pocket and withdrew a business card, “Alright, that’s all we need right now, we’ll be in touch. If you think of anything else, please call us.” Mr. Abrams took the card and nodded, he turned and walked away. The detectives could hear him stifling his sobs as he walked further down the hall.</p><p>Sarah turned to Holder, who looked back at her with a stony expression, then he turned and walked away. Sarah stood there for a few more moments, then she took a deep breath before following him.</p><p>——</p><p>Outside, Sarah saw that Holder was already in the car behind the wheel and smoking a cigarette. In lieu of asking him for one, she took out her own carton from her jacket pocket and lit it with her lighter. She took a long hit off of the smoke, then opened the car door and got inside.</p><p>Both of them sat inside the car for a while in silence smoking. Finally Sarah said, “Holder...”</p><p>Holder blew out a puff of smoke, “What?”</p><p>She blowed out a stream of smoke, not looking at him, “Are you sure you don’t remember the junkie?”</p><p>His jaw clenched, “I don’t remember him Linden.”</p><p>She turned her head to him, “Are you sure?” </p><p>“I was tweaked out of my god damn brains!” Holder yelled throwing his arms up. Sarah didn’t react, Holder continued to yell furiously, “How the fuck am I supposed to remember?!” He threw his cigarette out of the window, and punched the steering wheel, “Fucking fucked up tweaker, murderer... obsessed with some doll shit.” The fight left his voice as soon as it had come.</p><p>“Alright,” Sarah nodded, “I had to ask.”</p><p>She threw her cigarette out, Holder ran his hands over his face.</p><p>“Let’s go check out Stacey’s apartment,” said Sarah, pretending for the second time that day as though nothing had just happened, “see if we can find anything useful.”</p><p>Holder nodded and started the car.</p><p>——</p><p>Stacey had lived in Pioneer Square in the southwest corner of downtown Seattle. As the detectives pulled up to the address, Sarah saw it was a rundown apartment building with the exterior brick damaged and peeling, and some windows had been boarded up. </p><p>Holder and Linden had a neighbor buzz them up and got the keys from the landlord. Unlocking and opening the door, they were greeted by a neat and clean apartment.</p><p>It wasn’t very large: a small living space with a loveseat, coffee table, and television was just inside. To the right was a bedroom with a bathroom, and to the left was a small kitchen.</p><p>“She didn’t have a lot,” Sarah commented looking around. </p><p>“You wouldn’t either if you spent most of your dough on cristy or whatevs she was doin’,” Holder said darkly.</p><p>Sarah fought hard not to look up at him, instead she took out a pair of latex gloves from her coat pocket and slipped them on. Eventually, Holder mirrored her actions. She walked over to the kitchen, nothing was on the sink or counter, it was all clean. On the refrigerator, there were a few different colored post-it notes with messages written in thick black marker like “Meetings”, “Call People”, and “Serenity”.</p><p>“They’re on her bathroom mirror too,” said Holder. </p><p>Sarah looked up at him, “Find anything else?” she asked, he shook his head. Sarah looked around the kitchen and into the living room, “She was incredibly neat, kept things tidy. Did you find any makeup, in the bathroom?”</p><p>“No, nothin’.”</p><p>Sarah sighed and looked around frustrated, the trip had been a bust.</p><p>“I know some spots we can check out, see if anyone knew our vic. They’re real close to here,” Holder said, “If she’s only been clean two months our chances could be good.”</p><p>She looked at him for a moment, then nodded, “Alright.”</p><p>They turned and left the apartment.</p><p>——</p><p>It only took them about five minutes to get to where Holder had talked about, they had stayed in the neighborhood. Pioneer Square had become somewhat of a hub for the homeless and junkies, and that much was clear based on how many of them lined the streets. All of the buildings and businesses looked old and decrepit, a general store with a yellow awning seemed to be the hot spot of the area with a large clump of people gathered outside. Holder stopped by the corner near the store, he put the car into park and pulled up the emergency brake before undoing his seatbelt.</p><p>“Gimme your phone,” Holder said holding out his hand.</p><p>Sarah hesitated, “Why?”</p><p>“I need the pic of our vic, why else?”</p><p>Her eyebrows contracted, “I’m coming with you Holder.”</p><p>“No you’re not,” he said fervently, “you ain’t gonna get shit out of these people, and they won’t talk with you around. I know ‘em, they’ll talk to me.”</p><p>She opened her mouth to argue but he pinned her with a look, and she closed her mouth, “Fine.” Sarah handed him her phone.</p><p>Holder took it and closed the door behind him, he pulled the hood of his hoodie and jacket up, and walked away with a swagger in his step. Linden let out a huff at the ridiculousness of it.</p><p>Holder was gone about 20 minutes. Linden had passed the time by smoking and snooping through his glove compartment, only finding a map inside. She looked up when the door opened, he got back in the car and smelled strongly of marijuana. Very strongly.</p><p>“Oh god Holder, tell me you didn’t.” she said panicking slightly. She didn’t think he would do something stupid but at the same time...</p><p>Holder stopped her before she could start, “Keep your pants on moms. I found a guy who knew our vic, but man was high, and I mean HIGH. Pretty sure he believes he’s in unicorn fairyland, was real heavy on the Mary Jane. Knew Stacey though, apparently, after she got clean she tried to get him clean. Turns out they were buddies. I got him pegged for ya, but ya might want to wait to bring him in.”</p><p>“You have his name?”</p><p>“Devonte Graham, no doubt the guy has priors we could pull up. Trust me, he ain’t goin’ nowhere, ain’t mobile enough.” He started the car and tossed her her phone, she caught it as he started to drive away.</p><p>——</p><p>“Devonte Graham,” Linden read from a file back in the office, “six priors on drug possession and paraphernalia. I sent patrol to pick him up, so we’re waiting on that.” She picked up a second file. “Chinese restaurant owner, Chang Liu. He couldn’t describe the suspect he saw fleeing the scene.”</p><p>On the white board a blown up photo of Stacey Abrams from her driver’s license was now just below “JANE DOE”. Sarah erased it and replaced it with “STACEY ABRAMS”. There was a blank square on the whiteboard, labeled “SUSPECT” with three question marks underneath it. Liu’s photo was at the bottom, and Linden pinned Graham’s to the board too.</p><p>“So... we have nothing.” Holder said, and Sarah sent him a look, he shrugged, “What? We got jack shit Linden!”</p><p>“We’re homicide detectives, it’s our job to dig up the shit.” He snickered, and she rolled her eyes, “You know what I mean.”</p><p>There was a knock on the door and they both turned as it opened. An officer stuck his head in, “There’s a Mr. Graham in Interrogation 1 for you.”</p><p>Sarah and Holder met each other’s gazes, they headed out and closed the door behind them.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Day 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>September 4, 2013<br/>Day 2</p><p>Graham had still been coming down from his high when patrol picked him up, so by the time Sarah and Holder went into interrogation the clock had struck midnight: meaning they had entered their second day of the case.</p><p>Devonte Graham sat at the table in the interrogation room, holding his head in his hands and moaning.</p><p>“Damn son, you came down hard.” Holder smiled. He sat across from Graham who didn’t look up, while Sarah sat on the corner of the table.</p><p>“Anything we can get for you?” She asked.</p><p>“Water...” Graham’s croaky voice replied, still not looking up.</p><p>“I’ll be back,” she headed back out of the room. While Sarah was gone, neither Holder or Graham spoke, not that it made a difference, because she had been gone less then a minute before she was putting a plastic cup down in front of Graham. Then she stood and leaned against the two way mirror.</p><p>Graham drank greedily, swallowing all of the water down, “Thanks...” he looked up at the two detectives. It was the first time Linden got a good look at him. </p><p>Graham had curly black hair and bright piercing blue eyes that were a vast contrast to his dark skin, his face was somewhat shaven, but it was messily done and didn’t look well cared for. Graham scrunched his face in concentration, and he looked around the room, “Uh... why am I in a interrogation room for a drug bust?”</p><p>Holder chuckled, “Well dumbass, you probs don’t remember but you and I, we met out on the street. I asked you about your friend, Stacey Abrams?”</p><p>Graham stopped and thought for a moment, it looked like it took a lot of effort. Finally, “Oh yeah...” he smiled fondly. “She tried to get me clean ya know, go straight? I couldn’t do it though. Don’t have the ambition or whatever.”</p><p>“When was the last time you saw her?” Sarah asked.</p><p>Graham blew out a breath and leaned his head back, scrunching up his face, thinking, “Uh, day before yesterday? I think?”</p><p>Sarah and Holder glanced at each other. They were both thinking the same thing: the day before her murder.</p><p>“Day before yesterday? Are you sure? Where?” Holder pressed.</p><p>Graham brought his head back up straight, “Man chill I’m tryna keep up with you.” </p><p>“Yo man don’t ask me to chill!” Holder snapped, pressing his finger into the table, “This is a homicide investigation, answer the damn question.”</p><p>The color drained from Graham’s face, “Homicide?”</p><p>Holder didn’t say anything so Linden did, “Stacey Abrams was found dead yesterday morning.”</p><p>Graham looked struck dumb for a beat, then he shook his head, “No... no not Stacey. What?!” The man’s eyes filled with tears, “What... what happened?! I mean she... she...” a sob escaped his lips, “I took her for granted man, she was nothing but nice to me and I took her for granted.” He cried into his hands, and began to desperately gasp for air. </p><p>Holder leaned back in his seat, and crossed his arms. Graham seemed to be having trouble breathing as he sobbed, Sarah promptly left the room and came back soon after with a box of tissues and a bottle of water that she put in front of Graham, “Drink something Devonte, breathe.”</p><p>The man was still crying as he drank from the bottle and blew his nose, he didn’t let go of the tissue. Finally he looked up, “She got out, ya know? Didn’t deserve the life she was living, really turned her life around. I was damn proud.”</p><p>“You knew her well?” Holder asked, a bit more kindly.</p><p>Graham shrugged, “Met on the streets right? She was real sweet,” he blushed, “knew her... real well.”</p><p>The implication was clear, “You were sleeping together?” Sarah asked, no accusation in her tone.</p><p>Graham nodded, “But when she got clean we stopped. She said if I got clean... maybe we could be together for real. Move in together... get a place to live ya know?” His eyes filled up with tears again, “But I’m a no good junkie. I couldn’t stop. Not even for her. I loved her, and I couldn’t stop for her.” He was crying again.</p><p>“What was she doing when you last saw her?” asked Linden.</p><p>Graham made a sort of hiccuping sound, “She took me to one of those NA meetings...” He looked up at Holder. “that’s why I told you I knew Stacey earlier on the street. I recognize you from the meeting, I saw you there.”</p><p>Sarah slammed her eyes shut, “Shit.” </p><p>Graham expressed confusion under his tear stained faced, “Did I—?”</p><p>“Shut up,” she snapped.</p><p>A quick glance at Holder told her he had frozen, she couldn’t tell if he was about to burst, or implode. Maybe both. Sarah dashed out of the room for the third time, and went to the other side to the observation area. There was nobody there. Walking back out of the door, she saw a patrol officer walking by, “Hey!” she called and the uniform stopped and turned to face her, “I need you to stand right outside here. No one goes in, clear?” Confused, the uniform nodded.</p><p>“If anyone tries to give you a hard time about it, you direct them to me. You don’t let anyone in, YOU don’t go in, okay?”</p><p>“Yes ma’am.”</p><p>Detective Linden nodded, satisfied and she went back into the interrogation room. Holder had moved to lean against the mirror, his fingers laced together and his hands on his head. He looked at her imploringly, and she shook her head. A large breath of relief blew out of his lips.</p><p>Graham still didn’t seem to understand, “Did I do something wrong?” he asked tentatively.</p><p>“It’s general practice not to share who you see at a Narcotics ANONYMOUS meeting,” Linden said emphasizing the word “anonymous”.</p><p>“Dumbass...” Holder muttered shaking his head.</p><p>Graham looked ashamed, “I’m sorry.”</p><p>“Let’s focus back up,” said Sarah, at this point she didn’t know who to worry about more, Holder or Graham, “Stacey took you to the meeting, then what happened?”</p><p>“She uh... she treated me to lunch at this diner, and we sat and talked for a while.” Graham smiled fondly again “She was talking about a new job she had gotten, was real excited about it. Said it was gonna pay real well.”</p><p>“A new job?” Holder asked jumping back into the fray, “She say what it was?”</p><p>Graham’s face squinted in concentration, “Some, sales job I think? I dunno she wasn’t too big on sharing the specifics. I think she said the company was P.I.S. I remember ‘cause it made me laugh. Then after lunch we... said goodbye. She said she’d see me tomorrow, um... yesterday. Now I know why I didn’t see her.”</p><p>“Alright,” Sarah gave a nod, “Thanks for your help, we’re going to have an officer take you back.”</p><p>Sarah opened the door and asked the patrol officer standing guard to take Graham away. She looked at Holder and beckoned him out, they went to their office together closing the door behind them.</p><p>Holder looked... conflicted.</p><p>“You alright?” Sarah asked.</p><p>“Yeah, yeah...” he shrugged off her question, “no one heard or saw?”</p><p>She shook her head, “There wasn’t anyone there, and I had an officer stand guard so no one could get curious.”</p><p>Holder nodded, he plopped down in his seat, “I think I mighta recognized him,” he said quietly rubbing a hand over his face, “when I saw him on the street? It’s like I knew to go to him. Must have seen him at the damn meeting.”</p><p>Sarah thought very carefully before she spoke again, “Holder... did you know her?”</p><p>He ran his hands through his hair and shook his head, “I... I don’t think so. If I met her, I don’t remember.” </p><p>Sarah sighed and nodded, “You should get some rest. Head home, we can pick up in a few hours.”</p><p>“What about you?” he asked.</p><p>She huffed out a laugh, “Last ferry from Fauntleroy left at 1 a.m. so I’m stuck on the mainland for the night. I’m going to write some more notes on the board based on the information we’ve learned, then I’ll crash in here,” she shrugged, “wouldn’t be the first time.”</p><p>“I have a couch ya know,” Holder shrugged, “you could crash on that.”</p><p>The corner of Sarah’s lips turned up ever so slightly into a small smile, “I don’t want to impose, and you’ve had a long day, you could use the time to yourself. So go, I’ll see you in a few hours.”</p><p>Holder nodded and stood up, “G’night Linden,” he grabbed his jacket and headed out the door.</p><p>“‘Night,” she called after him.</p><p>Linden picked up the black dry erase marker and began writing again. Her eyes fell onto Graham’s photo, then to Stacey’s and her heart hurt for them both.</p><p>——</p><p>Holder hadn’t slept as well as he could have, his brain had been on overdrive. But after a few hours of sleep in his own bed he drove and walked back into the station with two cups of coffee and a bag of pastries he picked up at the cafe by his place on the way. When he got to their office he saw the door was closed and the lights were still on. He opened the door to find Linden fast asleep at her desk. Putting down the coffees and pastries, he hung up his coat and walked over to his partner.</p><p>“Linden?” He touch her lightly on the shoulder and she stirred.</p><p>Sarah groaned and picked her head up off of the desk, “‘Morning.” </p><p>“I brought coffee,” Holder said in a sing-song voice handing her a cup.</p><p>“You’re a god send,” She gratefully took the cup.</p><p>After a few sips she stood up next to him, leaning against their desks staring at the white board. It was more filled out now, Graham’s statements had been added to the fray, and “P.I.S.???” was written under NEW JOB.</p><p>“Guess we should get the dirt on P.I.S.?” Holder asked taking a sip of his own coffee.</p><p>Sarah nodded and put her coffee down, “But first I have to check in with Carlson about the case, it shouldn’t take too long, I don’t have much to tell him.” She pushed off of the desk and walked out of the office.</p><p>“I’ll just get started then,” he called after her.</p><p>“You do that,” she called back not turning to look at him.</p><p>Holder grinned and shook his head, then sat down at his computer, and typed “P.I.S.” in the search engine. The first thing that came up was Did you mean: piss? at which he scoffed. He sat back and thought for a moment, then he tried a different approach, typing in “P.I.S. employment opportunities” and web links for a pharmaceutical sales company came up. Holder scoffed, “Oh you gotta be kiddin’ me.”</p><p>At that moment Linden came back closing the door behind her with a loud thud, she did not look happy.</p><p>“What happened?” Holder asked.</p><p>“What do you think?” Sarah snapped.</p><p>“Whoa there Linden, don’t go all PMS on me, it’s only 8 in the morning!” He grabbed the bag of pastries, “Here, have a bear claw.”</p><p>She snatched the bag and took out the pastry, taking a hostile bite out of it, “God I wish I could smoke in here.”</p><p>“Don’t we all? Listen I found out was P.I.S. is.”</p><p>Linden’s scowl tightened onto him, “Piss is pee what the fuck are you talking about?”</p><p>Holden nearly spat out his coffee he had been taking a sip out of, “Shit!” Shaking with laughter, he shook his head, “No, Linden geez... P.I.S! The company our vic was working at.”</p><p>She wiped the remnants from the pastry off of her sweater, “Oh right. What is it?”</p><p>“Check this; it’s a pharmaceutical sales company.”</p><p>Sarah froze, her eyebrows raised, “She was selling drugs?”</p><p>“The legal kind,” he said with a finger flourish.</p><p>“Well that’s... ironic. Did you find any contact info for the business?”</p><p>“They have a field office in downtown, got the address right here.”</p><p>“Let’s go,” she threw the pastry back in the bag and grabbed her jacket throwing it around her shoulders, “I’m driving.”</p><p>“Alright little miss bossy.”</p><p>Sarah glared at him, “Don’t start with me Holder.”</p><p>——</p><p>Morning rush hour traffic slowed down what could have been much faster drive. Sarah was on her third smoke, Holder stared at her, obviously she was aggravated about something. She usually had a scowl on her face but her expression now was even more...scowly. They had been at a red light for a few minutes now, so he decided now was as good a time as any to try to figure out what was going on. </p><p>She beat him to it though, “It’s not polite to stare Holder.”</p><p>He chuckled, “You gonna share with the class what has you in such a happy mood? I mean damn Linden, I brought you breakfast and everythin’.”</p><p>Sarah wiped away a wisp of hair with the hand holding the cigarette, “It’s Carlson,” she said, “he’s being an ass.” she shook her head.</p><p>“Well he was an ass before, makes sense he’s still one now. What he do this time?”</p><p>“Told me to do everything by the book, to run every decision by him before I make it. To not,” she made quotation marks with her fingers, which was impressive considering she was still holding the cigarette, “‘do anything to jeopardize the investigation or he’d have my badge’.” </p><p>“Wait, you serious?” Holder asked incredulous. She nodded not looking at him, now it was his turn to get mad, “Who the fuck does he think he is? He was on the wrong side of the Larsen investigation until we convinced him otherwise!”</p><p>“Yeah well, you’re not the problem. My word’s no good remember?” </p><p>Holder shook his head, “He’s a fucking dickwad Linden, don’t listen to him. He’s just worried about his own ass because he nearly blew it with the Larsen case. I don’t care what the fuck he says, I got your back.”</p><p>The light turned green, and they drove forward.</p><p>“Thanks Holder,” Sarah said softly.</p><p>He smiled, “Anytime 1-900.” </p><p>Sarah shook her head, but Holder noticed the intensity of her expression had softened, and the small smile she was trying to hide.<br/>——<br/>The P.I.S. offices were located in a suite in a big building in downtown Seattle on the fifth floor. Detectives Linden and Holder flashed their badges to the front desk security guard who directed them to an elevator.</p><p>P.I.S., aside from its unfortunate acronym, was a “successful small local business”—according to the guide that took Sarah and Holder through the company offices. They walked down a space in between lines of cubicles on the left and right, employees clicking away on computers and making phone calls in their small square spaces, at the end was a door that lead to a private office.</p><p>“P.I.S. stands for Pharmaceutical International Sales,” the young employee, whose name was Dexter, said brightly.</p><p>“How can you be a small local business if you take part in international sales?” Sarah asked.</p><p>Dexter looked slightly crestfallen, but a booming laugh from a man in a designer suit distracted him, the man had come out of the private office ahead. </p><p>“You’d be surprised,” the man said, “what a small local business has the power to do. Whether it is locally, globally or internationally! Thanks Dexter, I’ll take it from here.” Dexter left them and the man in the suit extended his hand, “I’m Bruce Dole, president of this location.”</p><p>“I’m Detective Linden, this is Detective Holder,” Sarah said, “we were hoping maybe we could ask you a few questions?”</p><p>“I’ll do the best I can, yes of course. Please step into my office.” He gestured to the room he had come from and the two detectives headed inside. </p><p>Bruce Dole was older then a middle aged man and he looked incredibly well put together with a clean shaven face and neat salt and pepper hair. Aside from the small pot belly protruding from his charcoal slacks and shirt he also looked incredibly healthy. His office was quite spacious, with windows lining the walls showing the downtown Seattle city’s busy streets and sidewalks. </p><p>“Please have a seat!” Dole gestured to chairs on the opposite side of his desk. Neat stacks of paper sat on the surface of his desk, along with a nameplate in case you forgot whose office you were in. Sarah and Holder took their seats, “What can I help you with?”</p><p>“We were hoping you could tell us about one of your employees,” said Sarah. </p><p>“Oh?” Dole’s eyebrows shot up into his hairline, “Is everything alright?”</p><p>“One of your people got iced,” Holder said bluntly.</p><p>Dole looked shocked, but something about his reaction seemed staged to Sarah. It was almost as if he had calculated how he should react... she filed away that information for later.</p><p>“Stacey Abrams,” she said, “is there anything you can tell us about her?”</p><p>Dole took a long pause, he seemed to be thinking, “Can’t say I recognize the name. We have a very large staff, especially in our salesperson department.”</p><p>“We ain’t never said she was a salesperson,” said Holder crossing his arms, “Besides, thought you said this was a small business? How could you not know your employees?”</p><p>Dole had a brief moment of not reacting before putting the broad smile back on his face, “You must understand... being president of this location I do try my best to learn about each and every one of my employees. But even I am not perfect,” he let out a hearty laugh.</p><p>“Can we take a look at your records?” Sarah asked.</p><p>“Of course you can,” Dole nodded, “just as long as you have a warrant.”</p><p>Sarah took a calming breath while Holder clicked his teeth and turned away like an annoyed teenager.</p><p>“We don’t have a warrant Mr. Dole,” Sarah explained, “we could get one, very easily, but we were hoping you would cooperate with us.”</p><p>Dole’s chin went down and he gave the detectives a condescending smile, “Well I’m very sorry Detectives. For the privacy of my employees and our clients, I can’t let you access any of our company information without a warrant.”</p><p>She nodded pursing her lips, then stood up and turned on her heel, Holder following suit, “Thanks for your help Mr. Dole. We’ll be back.”</p><p>“I look forward to it!” The man called after them.</p><p>Sarah and Holder didn’t speak until they were on the elevator with the doors closed.</p><p>“He’s hiding something,” Holder said, “I’ll call in the warrant when we get back to the car.” He looked over at Sarah, “Do I tell Carlson?”</p><p>“Guess you have to, right?” Sarah said, “Have to run everything by him. Better hope he doesn’t stonewall you.”</p><p>The elevator doors opened and they both stepped out heading through the lobby of the building and going outside.</p><p>“I’ll make the call,” Holder said pulling out his phone and stepping away.</p><p>Sarah waited until he was on the phone then took out her own phone and pressed on Jack’s contact name. It was the middle of the day and she knew he was in school, but if she left him a message she might get lucky and he would call her back when he got out. Sure enough the voicemail picked up.</p><p>“Hey this is Jack. Obviously I’m not here right now. Wherever here is. Leave a message, I might respond.”</p><p>She smiled at the sound of her son’s voice, “Hey Jack... I know you’re in class right now. I just wanted to hear your voice. Maybe after school you can give me a call? I’d love to hear from you. I miss you. And I love you... bye.” Sarah pressed end call and closed the phone, as soon as she did the smile on her face slowly melted away. She looked up to see Holder still talking into his phone, he didn’t look aggravated so that was a good sign.</p><p>Sarah took out a cigarette and lit it before she leaned against the car. Finally Holder closed his phone and came over to her.</p><p>“What did Carlson say?” She asked.</p><p>“Nothing worth repeating,” Holder replied casually, “but we got our warrant.”</p><p>Her eyebrows rose, “Really?”</p><p>“Don’t sound so shocked Linden,” he said, “I’m a good cop! I can make things happen. Snap of my fingers and bam, magic. I’m like a wizard baby.”</p><p>Sarah huffed, and put the cigarette to her lips, “Yeah, you’re a Class-A Dumbledore.”</p><p>“Oh, snap! Linden reads books?!”</p><p>She ignored him, “Can we go inside now?”</p><p>He shook his head, “Not ‘til tomorrow. Have to wait 24 hours for the warrant to come through.”</p><p>Sarah glared at him indignantly, “Then why the hell are we wasting time out here?!” She asked, a bite to her tone.</p><p>“Because we’re spending quality time together! Cheer up Linden.”</p><p>She stalked to the driver’s side, “I’m driving let’s go. I’ll take you back to the station, then I’ll head home and change, I’ve been wearing this sweater for over 24 hours, I should probably shower.”</p><p>“Thank god for that, I wasn’t gonna say anythin’ but—” </p><p>“Maybe you should still not say anything,” she glared at him.</p><p>Holder grinned and got in the car.<br/> </p>
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<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Day 2 (continued)</h2></a>
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    <p>Holder stayed at the station trying to do some more research on P.I.S. while Sarah headed home for a change of clothes and a shower. When she came back it was around lunchtime, and she was wearing a charcoal grey sweater underneath her jacket and a new pair of jeans.</p><p>“You took your sweet time,” teased Holder as Sarah came inside the office closing the door behind her. She gave Holder an exasperated look as she removed her jacket and hung it up, he bobbed his head, “New sweater I see, you look like a new woman.”</p><p>“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you out of that grey hoodie,” Sarah jabbed.</p><p>“Why fix what ain’t broke? I look beautiful no matter what, know what I’m sayin’?” Holder leaned back in his chair and spread his arms wide.</p><p>“Have you found anything else on the company?” Sarah asked, changing the subject.</p><p>“You can say it’s name ya know,” Holder said with a sly smile.</p><p>Sarah sat at her desk, “I really don’t want to give you the satisfaction.”</p><p>“Did ya bring any food?”</p><p>She pinned him down with a glare, “Does it look like I brought any food?”</p><p>He huffed out a breath, “Damn Linden, ev’rybody gotta eat sometime, even you.”</p><p>“You didn’t answer my question.”</p><p>He rolled his eyes, “Can’t find any dirt on P.I.S., squeaky clean company, or it appears to be. Started operating last year, right here outta Seattle. They got a few branches now around the state, big pharma or whatevs. I reached out to Stacey’s uncle again, he didn’t know about the job. Seems Graham was the only one who knew.”</p><p>“Great,” Sarah muttered before she put her head in her hands.</p><p>“Hey don’t fret mamacita, we’re only on Day 2! We got this.”</p><p>“Yeah, here’s hoping,” Sarah stood up and went to the white board, she looked at the photo of Stacey hanging from the beam, her porcelain-like face with empty eyes staring directly into the lens.</p><p>Holder watched as she stared at the photo, seemingly lost in Stacey’s blank gaze, “You good Linden?”</p><p>“Yeah... Carlson got into my head is all,” she said quietly.</p><p>“You want me to beat him up for you?”</p><p>She smiled a little, and looked over her shoulder at him.</p><p>Holder pointed at her, “Aw yeah, there’s that Linden smile.” She rolled her eyes and shook her head. He stood up and grabbed his keys, “I’m going to go grab lunch you want somethin’?”</p><p>“No I’m good.”</p><p>He nodded and left. Sarah looked closer at the picture of the victim’s face. The makeup she wore really did stand out, there had to be a reason for it. Sarah looked around on the desks, trying to find the right folder among all of the papers they had, but after minutes of fruitless searching it was clear that the folder wasn’t there.</p><p>Picking up her office phone she called CSU. “This is Detective Sarah Linden, I’m looking for the results of the substances found on our victim’s face.”</p><p>“<em>What case was that?</em>” Came the voice through the phone.</p><p>“Stacey Abrams, body found hanging with the dolls.”</p><p>The sound of a keyboard clacking as it was typed on, then a pause... and then, “<em>Our records show we’ve already sent over those results.</em>”</p><p><br/>Sarah paused at this; the records definitely weren’t in the office and CSU wasn’t exactly known for making mistakes. After a beat she asked, “Can you send them again?”</p><p>“<em>Now?</em>”</p><p>She rubbed her head willing herself to remain calm, “Yes... right now.”</p><p>Another pause, “<em>They’re on their way. Someone should be there shortly.</em>”</p><p>“Thanks,” Sarah placed the phone back on the receiver. Something stood out about the make up, she picked up the dry erase marker and wrote MAKEUP on the board. There was a knock on the door, she opened it and saw a brown folder being held out by an officer.</p><p>“CSU told me to bring this to you?”</p><p>“Yeah, thanks,” Sarah said with a brief small smile barely glancing at the officer and shutting the door.</p><p>Looking at the results she saw the makeup was of extremely high quality, all of the products belonged to a company called Amore. If only they knew where the makeup had been purchased...</p><p>She went to her computer and looked up the company, they sold nationwide and to about 13 stores in Seattle alone. It would be difficult to pinpoint exactly where the purchase was made. Then again, if they could find out the names of the exact shades used and then cross reference that with the stores that sold Amore in the area—they could canvass the stores and ask about people that purchased all of those shades at the same time. They could get lucky. It was a big if but she had to give it a try.</p><p>Using the Amore website she looked through their products. The color on Stacey’s lips was a very prominent red, according to the makeup companies website the only color that matched it was something called “Red Hot Love”. The mascara and eyeliner would be harder to figure out, they both just looked black to her and so did the options to choose from on Amore’s website. She did find the blush though, “Coral Beach” and eyeshadow “Au Natural”.</p><p>So now she had a starting point, Sarah could work with that. She wrote down the names and addresses of the stores in Seattle that sold the product, then reprinted the driver’s license picture of Stacey. She hadn’t realized how much time had passed, because next thing she knew Holder came back in the office carrying a tray of drinks and two bags of food.</p><p>“Good you’re here,” Sarah said, “we have to go. We’re gonna see if the stores who sold this makeup Stacey wore recognize her photo, or if they have a record of who bought these shades of makeup at the same time.”</p><p>“Damn Linden, I just got back with food,” Holder held up the bags.</p><p>She shrugged, “You can eat in the car.”</p><p>“You gotta eat too girl. Can’t go fightin’ crime on an empty stomach.”</p><p>Sarah turned to him, “I’m not hungry, c’mon let’s go.”</p><p>She made for the door and Holder slid to stand right in front of it, she was not impressed.</p><p>“Get out of the way Holder.” Sarah spoke through clenched teeth.</p><p>He looked down at her, “I will legit pin you down and force feed you if I have to.”</p><p>Her raised her eyebrows suggestively, “Pin me down, huh?”</p><p>Holder blushed, actually blushed, but he still didn’t back down, “You’re small enough as it is. Get any smaller and you might disappear, then what the hell am I gonna tell Jack? “Sorry lil’ man, she just up and disappeared and I don’t know where the fuck she’s at!””</p><p>They glared at each other for a few moments.</p><p>“Fine,” Sarah grabbed one of the bags and drinks and took it to her desk.</p><p>“That’s actually mine,” Holder walked over and switched the bags.</p><p>She glared at him contemptuously, then pulled out the burger from the bag and unwrapped it before wolfing it down.</p><p>Sarah wouldn’t admit it, but she was starving, really truly hungry though she didn’t realize this until the first bite. The burger settled appreciatively in her stomach along with the soda she drank.</p><p>She took out the fries and threw away the bag, eating the fries two by two.</p><p>“Can we go now?” She asked her mouth still full.</p><p>Holder moved out of the way and opened the door gesturing for her to go outside. Sarah took her coat off of the hook and grabbed the file before putting it under her arm as she still held onto her soda and fries. He followed her turning off the light and closing the door behind him.</p><p>——</p><p>The first three stores were a total bust, it was getting close to 6 o’clock and the detectives were driving to the fourth store on the opposite side of Seattle. Linden was not in the best of moods—Holder was used to this though. He let her take the wheel of the car and offered her cigs when she used them up, and of course talked like a smart ass, because why wouldn’t he?</p><p>“Yo that last manager was a dick,” he said. “I almost popped him in the mouth.”</p><p>“Yeah you made that clear, then again I think he just wanted to jump your bones.”</p><p>“Wait what?” Holder’s head turned sharply to look at her.</p><p>“You couldn’t tell?” Linden looked at him briefly before she turned back to look at the road, “He was into you, I mean, really into you. I almost offered to rent you guys a room.”</p><p>Holder huffed and looked out the window, “Well I don’t swing that way.”</p><p>“Wish I knew that before I gave him your number.”</p><p>Holder’s head turned so fast he snapped a crick in his neck. His hand went up rubbing it looking at Linden. That was definitely a smirk on her face.</p><p>“Oh snap!” Holder smiled too. “Linden’s joking, ain’t ya?”</p><p>“About parts of it,” she shrugged, “he did like you though.”</p><p>“Sucks to suck,” Holder lit another cigarette.</p><p>Linden turned into the parking lot of a small boutique store in Ballard called Daphne’s. Turning off the engine Linden got out of the car and Holder did the same.</p><p>“Got the file?” She asked him.</p><p>“Right here,” Holder held it out taking another puff of his cig.</p><p>“Put that out and let’s go.”</p><p>The detectives walked in the door and a small bell rung above them as they went inside. There were shelves along the walls with various different types of makeup brands and products, there were also a few stands that were scattered in the middle of the room as well. An employee came towards them, a young woman wearing a green sweater and jeans.</p><p>“How can I help you?”</p><p>Holder and Linden both flashed their badges, “Seattle P.D.” Linden said. “We were wondering if you could help us out with something.”</p><p>Concern crossed the young woman’s face, “I can definitely do my best.”</p><p>Holder opened the file and grabbed the picture of Stacey they had from her driver’s license, “You ever seen this woman before?”</p><p>The young woman looked at it and answered at once, “Stacey? Yeah of course.”</p><p>Linden’s eyebrows contracted, “You know her?”</p><p>“Well yeah,” the young woman said. “She works here.”</p><p>Holder and Linden looked at each other.</p><p>“What’s your name?” Linden asked.</p><p>“Trina, Trina Vasquez.”</p><p>“Alright Trina,” Linden said in an attempt at a soft tone. “How long has Stacey worked here?”</p><p>“About six months? I think? Yeah she worked here usually about four days a week, the evening shift,” she huffed a breath, “I’m only here because she’s been skimming her shift the past few days.”</p><p>“Is that right?” Holder said. “Are the employees known for using the products you sell?”</p><p>“Well we get a killer discount, so yeah it’s totally normal,” she said. “It’s also a great way for us to advertise the product you know?” Trina smiled brightly.</p><p>“Yeah I feel ya girl, so Stacey, did she have a fave brand or whatnot?”</p><p>“Yeah, Amore! Definitely,” Trina answered. “She loved it, talked it up all the time. Sometimes I had to remind her we had other brands to sell too,” she chuckled lightly. “Why are you guys asking about her? You gonna bring her back so I can get my off time?”</p><p>“Is there a manager here?” Linden asked.</p><p>Trina raised her hand and grinned, “You’re looking at her.”</p><p>Linden nodded, “Trina, Stacey was found dead yesterday morning. I’m very sorry,” Trina froze. “We need to ask you just a few more questions okay?”</p><p>Trina’s face had fallen, “O-okay.”</p><p>“Do you have records of purchases we can look at? We need to see if someone bought specific products at the same time.” Holder handed Linden the paper as she had asked the question, and she held it out for Trina who looked at it briefly.</p><p>“There’s no need to go into our records,” said Trina. “These are Stacey’s favorites, I recognize them all. But you’re missing “Black Night” and “True Dark” her mascara and eyeliner. Also her foundation which is “Fair Skin”.”</p><p>“Alright,” Linden gave a nod, “thanks for your help. We’ll be in touch.” She took a card out of her pocket and handed it to the young woman, “Call us if you think of anything else.”</p><p>Holder and Linden turned and headed out. Out of the corner of his mouth Holder said quietly, “I’d make a joke about her being in love with you, but I honestly think you might have scared the pants off her. I don’t see no wedding bells in the future.”</p><p>——</p><p>Back at Seattle P.D. Holder and Linden had applied their newly learned information onto the whiteboard, it was getting close to 8 o’clock, Sarah stood back and looked at what they had added , her brain whirling.</p><p>Holder sighed, “I think it’s time to call it a day boss.”</p><p>“Hm?” Sarah said snapping out of focus, turning to look at Holder.</p><p>His head jerked to the door, “You can still make the ferry if you leave now.” Sarah looked like she wanted to object. Holder shook his head, “C’mon Linden. Nothin’ else we can do right now. You gotta take care of you too.”</p><p>In other words, don’t go all Rosie Larsen again. Sarah sighed and looked back at the board, then nodded, “Alright,” she said. “See you tomorrow.” Sarah got her coat off of the hook and swung it around her shoulders putting it on.</p><p>“Night, night Linden,” said Holder.</p><p>“Yeah... goodnight Holder.”</p><p>——</p><p>Back in downtown Seattle at the P.I.S. Office, Bruce Dole was hurriedly shoveling papers into a shredder. He knew the cops would be there tomorrow, and they couldn’t find out this information. Especially about the Abrams woman, he would be ruined.</p><p>——</p><p>Holder drove himself to a late night NA Meeting. Inside the small brick building he looked around and saw the other recovering addicts... his eyes landed on Devonte Graham. Holder gave him a small wave, and Graham gave a shy wave back.</p><p>——</p><p>On the ferry Linden’s phone rang, she looked down and saw that it was Jack calling. She smiled and pressed the phone answering, “Hi Jack.”</p>
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<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Day 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>September 5, 2013<br/>Day 3</p><p>The next day was just as cloudy as the previous one. Sarah pulled up to the station to find Holder standing outside, waving the warrant around. He lumbered up to the car and placed his hand on the roof before leaning down so he could talk to her through the open window.</p><p>“We got it,” he grinned. “You want to go now?”</p><p>“Yeah, let’s go.”</p><p>Holder hadn’t expected anything less, he patted the roof and walked around to the passenger side and got in. Sarah turned the car around to leave the parking lot. Holder got out a cigarette and lit it up, taking a long draft.</p><p>“Don’t blow that out in here,” said Sarah sternly glancing over.</p><p>He pressed down the window button ever so slightly, so that it was cracked open just a bit.</p><p>“Yes ma’am.”</p><p>Sarah shook her head at his attitude. After a few moments she reached into the center console and grabbed a piece of nicotine gum.</p><p>“Oh we doin’ that again?” asked Holder.</p><p>“You should try it sometime,” she said chewing.</p><p>“Yeah, whatevs. You won’t last an hour.”</p><p>“Screw you Holder,” there was no heat behind her words. Sarah glanced at him sideways with a smirk on her face—impressive considering how hard she was smacking on the gum.</p><p>——</p><p>When Holder and Sarah walked into the building where the P.I.S. offices were, something seemed different. No guide came to greet them, and Bruce Dole was nowhere to be found, the office at the end of the line of cubicles looked dark, and the door was shut. The only thing that remained the same was that people still sat at their cubicle stations and worked at their computers.</p><p>“Excuse me,” Sarah said to one of the employees. When he looked up she noticed it was their guide, Dexter, from yesterday.</p><p>“Oh! Hello detectives, um... Mr. Dole isn’t here today.” </p><p>“Ya know where he is?” asked Holder his chin jerking up.</p><p>Dexter shook his head, “All I know is he called in sick, but we received instructions to come to work as normal.”</p><p>“We have a warrant to take any and all information on employees,” said Sarah, “do you know where we can we get that information?”</p><p>“Well... I don’t have a key, but, Mr. Dole keeps all of the employee files in his office.”</p><p>“Do you know anyone besides Mr. Dole who does have a key?”</p><p>“I’m sorry...” and he genuinely sounded sorry, “I don’t.”</p><p>Sarah gave a nod of thanks while Holder went to the office door and tried to jimmy the handle but it was locked. He threw his shoulder against the door.</p><p>“Holder,” she said exasperated.</p><p>“What? We got the warrant Linden, ain’t our fault he’s not here,” he threw his weight against the door again.</p><p>She walked over to him, “You’re going to throw out your shoulder.”</p><p>Holder huffed with a grin, “I’ve got bones of steel Linden.”</p><p>He threw his shoulder against the door again. All of the employees were looking now, peering over their computers and cubicles, looking like gophers popping out of the ground.</p><p>Sarah rolled her eyes, “Stand back Holder.”</p><p>Holder looked at her, “What, for real?”</p><p>She nodded and shooed him, so he stepped to the side. Sarah took a stance, her left foot in front of her right, then she threw her weight behind a right front kick to the door and it flew open.</p><p>Holder scratched his head, “I loosened it up for you.” </p><p>“Sure you did,” she deadpanned.</p><p>Holder turned to see the employees gaping at them, “Yo fools, we got a warrant! Nothin’ to see here.”</p><p>Sarah had gone inside the office and flipped on the light switch after finding it right next to the door. From her pocket she took out a pair of latex gloves and slipped them on, she gave the entire office a quick once over, everything appeared to be the same as it had been the previous day; with the exception of the the missing Dole. Finding the Employee File was easy because it was sitting right on the desk. Sarah opened it... to find it empty.</p><p>“Holder,” she called and he joined her at the desk, “Look.”</p><p>There was a beat as he looked at the file, “Well, where the hells it at?”</p><p>“Hell if I know,” Sarah said frustrated, looking around the office, the tension rolling off of her in waves. “And suddenly he’s not here? “Called out sick”? He’s bolted, dammit!”</p><p>She threw down the empty file back onto the desk, Holder out his hands out in what he thought was a calming motion.</p><p>“Woah Linden chill.” He looked around the office, “Maybe we find something else.”</p><p>“The warrants’ only for the employee information, we can’t touch anything else,” Sarah responded breathing heavily. “Best we can do is put out an APB and hope Dole turns up so we can bring him in for questioning,” she looked up at him fuming. “We underestimated him.”</p><p>Sarah walked past him and out of the office. Holder grabbed the file off of the desk and followed close behind.</p><p>“Hey he was her employer, that’s all. It ain’t like he was a suspect,” Holder said as he made to keep up with her.</p><p>“Yeah well, maybe he should have been.” Linden called back.</p><p>“This ain’t our fault Linden.”</p><p>She turned around quickly, he had to stop abruptly so as not to run into her.</p><p>“You really think Carlson will see it that way?”</p><p>Holder didn’t answer, looking down into her stormy eyes. They got to the elevator and rode down most of the way in silence.</p><p>“No need to direct your anger on my Linden.” said Holder with a quiet intensity. The elevator doors opened to the lobby.</p><p>Her lips parted as though she were slightly surprised, instead of responding she headed out of the building. They had made it back outside to the car before he spoke again,</p><p>“What’s our next move?” he asked, immediately going to the passenger side door.</p><p>Sarah blew out a breath, her hand on the car’s door handle, “Let’s go back to the boutique. See if we can’t get anything else from Trina. You can call in the APB on the way.”</p><p>Holder didn’t argue with her and climbed in the car.</p><p>——</p><p>Back at Daphne’s, Sarah and Holder walked back into the boutique and Trina came out from the back meeting them in the middle of the store.</p><p>“Detectives,” Trina said smiling politely. “Back so soon?”</p><p>“We just have a few more questions we need to ask you,” said Sarah.</p><p>Trina’s smile faltered for a moment, “I’m sorry, I don’t know what else I could tell you,” she said crossing her arms.</p><p>“Other then the recent absences, what kind of employee was Stacey?” Linden asked.</p><p>The young woman’s arms slapped down to her side, “I mean, normal you know? She’d show up, do her job, and go home.”</p><p>“Then why aren’t you more upset she’s dead?” asked Holder. “You know, a normal person would have taken it differently.”</p><p>“Who said I wasn’t upset?” Trina snapped, louder then usual with heat behind her words.</p><p>“Woah ho,” Holder’s eyebrows raised, slightly amused. “Does  Trina have a temper?”</p><p>She crossed her arms, “Oh please. You’re getting in my face, wouldn’t you be upset if I did that to you?”</p><p>Sarah stepped in, “Trina please. Anything you could tell us would be useful.”</p><p>Trina looked down, then slowly back up. She looked ashamed, “Okay look. She closed the store at night all the time, and... the past few weeks she was telling me, that she thought she was being followed after closing.”</p><p>Holder’s face turned dark and he scowled, “Why the fuck didn’t you tell us this before?!”</p><p>Trina’s eyes welled with tears, “Because I didn’t do anything about it! I blew it off, figured she was trying to get out of work or something,” she sobbed. “I probably got her killed!” Her legs seemed to give out, both Holder and Sarah moved to catch her but Holder got there first. He helped her re-steady herself as she sobbed and looked up at at his partner.</p><p>Sarah shook her head, clearly frustrated at this new development also making an enormous effort to bite her tongue. Her eyes searched the store, she waited a few moments while Trina’s sobs died down before she asked, “Does the store have any security cameras inside or out?”</p><p>Trina’s face was red and covered in tears. Nodding she said, “Yes. Yeah it does. There’s a system in the back.”</p><p>“Can I take a look at it?” Sarah asked, and the young woman nodded.</p><p>Sarah headed to the back and found the system. There were two cameras, one that monitored in the store, and the other that monitored outside the front door. She opened her phone and dialed, “This is Detective Sarah Linden I need a tech at my location to extract some digital video.”</p><p>——</p><p>Bruce Dole pulled up outside of a small cafe. A hooded man walked up to the window. Dole handed him a thick orange envelope, and the hooded man took it.</p><p>“I’ll give you the details later,” Dole said, then he drove off.</p><p>——</p><p>Back at the precinct Sarah and Holder walked into the station only to be flagged down by Carlson.</p><p>“Detectives, my office. Now,” Carlson said, non-politely.</p><p>Sarah and Holder exchanged glances.</p><p>“Here we go,” Sarah muttered.</p><p>Together they headed inside, and stood on the other side of Carlson’s desk where he normally sat, though he wasn’t sitting now. In fact he seemed fidgety, running a hand over his jaw and placing his hands on his hips. </p><p>“Close the door.” Carlson ordered.</p><p>Holder did so, but not without saying, “Would it kill ya to say please?”</p><p>“Now is not the time for jokes,” the lieutenant snapped. “I grant you permission on a warrant, and when you go to serve it—you break private property AND after doing so the evidence you claimed to be looking for doesn’t exist?!”</p><p>“Sir, the evidence existed,” Sarah said. “We think our suspect either made off with the evidence or he destroyed it.”</p><p>“Suspect?” Carlson startled. “Your warrant was for employee information records. There was nothing about a suspect.”</p><p>She hesitated briefly, but the moment was inevitable, “He wasn’t a suspect at the time,” she finally said. “We had no reason to believe he had anything to do with the case. As far as we were concerned he was just our victim’s boss.”</p><p>Carlson huffed and looked between the two detectives, he smirked and shook his head, “Well you two really fucked this up huh?”</p><p>“Look lieu—” Holder started to say.</p><p>“No I don’t want to hear it!” Carlson snapped raising a hand up at Holder, effectively silencing him, “You’re homicide detectives for god sakes! This is the Larsen case all over again.”</p><p>“It’s not!” Sarah raised her voice, “You know it’s not! We can get out in front of this!”</p><p>“Can you?” Carlson sneered. “Because from where I’m standing it looks like you’re about to crap all over this case just like you did that one.”</p><p>“Alright,” Holder put out his arms. Sarah’s face had turned red and her body was tense with anger. “We screwed up. Won’t happen again sir.”</p><p>“See that it doesn’t,” snapped Carlson. “Now get out of my sight.”</p><p>Sarah didn’t hesitate, she threw open the office door and stormed out walking into their own  office she let the door close behind her and stood in front of the white board, Holden right on her tail.</p><p>“Breathe Linden,” he said closing the door behind him.</p><p>“I’m fine,” she responded through gritted teeth not turning to look at him.</p><p>“Yeah, you’re an absolute ray of sunshine,” Sarah slowly turned to face him glaring. Oh if looks could kill. But he met her gaze and smiled, “I’m just calling it like it is!”</p><p>She didn’t respond and went to her desk rifling through papers. There was a knock at the door and Holder went to open it. Sarah didn’t look up to see who it was, but heard a short exchange before he closed the door again.</p><p>“Got the store’s footage. They couldn’t pull anything from the camera inside, but we got the outside cam. Let’s watch some crappy store video.”</p><p>Holder helped pull it up in on a borrowed laptop. They both sat down to watch the outdoor security camera.</p><p>——</p><p>“Lucky this ain’t one of those cameras that erase every 24 hours,” Holder said, crunching loudly.</p><p>They had been combing through weeks of footage for a few hours, and it was getting late. At some point Holder had gotten hold of a bag of pork rinds, Sarah had tried really hard not to comment on it sending him an occasional glare when he crunched too hard.</p><p>They watched the screen of the street outside the boutique for the umpteenth time, as Stacey locked up the store and walked to the adjacent parking lot. Finally they were looking at the week before the murder—they still hadn’t seen anyone following her. </p><p>“Maybe she lied,” Holder said.</p><p>“Who? Stacey or Trina?”</p><p>Holder thought for a moment, “Both?”</p><p>Sarah shook her head her gaze still on the screen, “I don’t know Holder. Trina seemed pretty genuine.”</p><p>“She coulda just been fallin’ for me.” Holder said, turning slightly to smile at Sarah. The video was now one night before the date of the murder.</p><p>Sarah side eyed him, and he chuckled that he got her attention. “Who wouldn’t want all this?” he asked motioning to himself.</p><p>“I can think of one person,” she replied going back to the surveillance video.</p><p>“Oho, Linden with the diss!” Holder laughed, and looked back at the screen. “Wait pause right there!”</p><p>“What?” Sarah paused the video her eyes searching the screen.</p><p>“Go back just a bit.” She clicked on the back button until... “There!”</p><p>It was hard to make out, but sure enough there was a figure across the street, as soon as Stacey had gone to the parking lot he had followed her.</p><p>“What date is this from?” Sarah searched the screen for a time stamp.</p><p>“Date of her murder,” Holder pointed at the screen. “That’s gotta be him.”</p><p>“Assumptions are your enemy Holder, I’ve told you that before.” Sarah pressed print and waited for the picture to come out. Looking at it there was no way to make out a face, “Let’s take this to Ray. See if he can clear any of this up.”</p><p>——</p><p>Ray was the resident tech genius of Seattle P.D. He sat in the tech room of the station, as Linden leaned on a chair right behind him.</p><p>“I don’t know if I’ll be able to do anything with this Detective,” Ray said cautiously.</p><p>“Well, we have to try,” Sarah said right back. “Time stamp you’re looking for is 3 days ago, September 2nd around 10:24 PM.” Sarah held up the picture she had printed out in their office, the time stamp reads 10:24:46.</p><p>Ray scrolled forward, “Got it.”</p><p>“Alright,” her heart was racing. “Can we get a clearer image?”</p><p>“Let me see,” Ray typed on his keyboard and moved his mouse around clicking. </p><p>Sarah’s grip on the chair tightened, the grainy image had become clearer, but it proved to be useless. The tension and excitement left her like a deflating balloon. </p><p>“Your guy was wearing a hood,” he said. “Kept his head at just the right angle to hide from the camera.”</p><p>She exhaled, unable to hide her disappointment and frustration, “Dammit.” Sarah breathed out, standing up to her full height and rubbing her forehead.</p><p>Ray turned around, “I can comb through the footage, see if I can find anything else.”</p><p>She nodded, “Thanks Ray.” Then she walked out of the room.</p><p>——</p><p>In a dark office, Bruce Dole is on the phone, “I need you take care of it tonight.” </p><p>“It’s going to take some time,” The person on the other end of the phone line replied.</p><p>“I don’t care how long it’s going to take, you fucking take care of it tonight! I want those warehouses empty!”</p><p>——</p><p>Holder pinned the clearer photo of their mystery man to the whiteboard. He then sat next to Linden in front of the whiteboard. Not for the first time in their life, the board seemed to fill up the room, with all of its information on the case making the board seem much larger then it actually is.</p><p>——</p><p>Trina closed the boutique and locked up the store. She turned around and saw someone standing behind her, “Oh, you scared me.” <br/> </p>
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<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Day 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>September 6, 2013<br/>Day 4</p><p>Both Linden and Holder had fallen asleep in the office. Her phone had started buzzing on the desk, and the noise jolted her awake. She had fallen asleep with her head on her arms laying flat on the desk. When she looked up she saw Holder leaning back in his chair with his mouth wide open. Linden felt a small smile cross on her face, he looked ridiculous. Then she remembered why she woke up.</p><p>“Shit,” she grabbed her phone and saw she had one missed call. Before she could look to see who had called the phone on the desk started to ring. She picked it up immediately, “This is Detective Linden.”</p><p>“<em>Detective Linden, there’s someone at the front desk here to see you.</em>” It was the officer at the front desk of the precinct.</p><p>“I’ll be right there,” she ended the call and stood up, walking to the other side of the desk. Holder was still asleep, “Holder,” she tapped him hard on the shoulder and he jerked awake.</p><p>“Wha?” He looked around the office, slowly taking in and processing his surroundings, “Damn I’m still here?” He looked at Linden, “Who did your hair? Mr. Wind?”</p><p>Sarah ignored the jab, “Someone’s here to see us Holder, I’m going to go see who it is.” She opened the office door and headed out.</p><p>Holder’s voice called from the open office door, “Seriously might want to fix your hair though!”</p><p>Sarah speed walked to the front of the station. Soon she saw who had come to see them, it was their guide from P.I.S.</p><p>“Dexter,” she greeted approaching him. “What can I do for you?”</p><p>“Um... I need to talk to you detective, about...” he lowered his voice, “about Mr. Dole?”</p><p>“Sure,” Sarah said, “you can come back with me.”</p><p>She nodded to the officer at the front desk to let him know it was okay and motioned for Dexter to follow her down the hallway. At the first interrogation room, she opened the door and flipped on the light inside, checking to be sure it was empty. “In here,” she motioned to the room. “I’ll be right back.”</p><p>Sarah went back to their office, “Hey!” She called to Holder who looked as though he was still shaking off the remnants of sleep, “Dexter’s here, he wants to talk. You coming?”</p><p>“Dexter...?”</p><p>“Guide from P.I.S.” She replied impatiently.</p><p>“Oh yeah. Yup.” Holder stood up and followed her back down the hall to the interrogation room.</p><p>Dexter was sitting nervously, twiddling his thumbs.</p><p>“Thanks for your patience,” Sarah said. “We appreciate it. What do you want to tell us about Mr. Dole?”</p><p>“Well,” the man started, “you need to understand, I didn’t learn about this until yesterday okay?” He sounded anxious, and slightly desperate, “Last night I was working later then I usually do and he came by the offices. He didn’t know I was there, he didn’t see me in my cubicle. He was talking on the phone, said something about clearing out some warehouses, and how they needed to be cleared out tonight—meaning last night, he was really insistent on that bit. Then he also talked about...” Dexter swallowed nervously, “He talked about how he’d gotten rid of some records of some kind. And how they didn’t have to worry because the police wouldn’t ever find out anything about it. But it didn’t seem as big a deal to him as the warehouse thing.”</p><p>“Do you know what warehouses he was talking about?” asked Sarah.</p><p>Dexter shook his head, “I’m sorry, I don’t.”</p><p>“You know anyone else who could know?”</p><p>Dexter thought for a moment. “Maude, she’s Dole’s right hand man—uh, woman. If anyone would know, she would.”</p><p>“This Maude have a last name?” asked Holder.</p><p>“Barry,” Dexter said. “Her name is Maude Barry.”</p><p>Sarah and Holder met each other’s gaze and nodded. She turned back to Dexter and gave him a brief smile.</p><p>“Thank-you Dexter,” she said. “We really appreciate it, you did the right thing coming to us with this information.”</p><p>Dexter nodded and stood up. Sarah stood up and went and opened the door for him but he stopped before he left, and turned to look at the detectives.</p><p>“Please don’t tell anyone I told you,” he said. “Please.”</p><p>“No worries brotha,” Holder said. “No one will know.”</p><p>Dexter left, Sarah looked at Holder, “You shouldn’t have promised that.”</p><p>“Ain’t no thing Linden,” he said. “Maude Barry. Guess we should go look her up.”</p><p>——</p><p>Bruce Dole stood inside of an empty warehouse. The hooded man stood beside him.</p><p>“Job done to your satisfaction?” The hooded man asked.</p><p>“Looks that way,” Dole said. “I’ll transfer you the rest.”</p><p>“What you want me to do with the stuff that was inside?”</p><p>Dole’s gaze pierced him, “Burn it all.”</p><p>——</p><p>“Maude Barry,” Sarah pinned photo of Barry to a newly added bulletin board in their office—they had run out of room on the whiteboard. “30 years old, college education. No record, no priors. Started working at P.I.S. when the company got up and running, she’s been with them ever since.</p><p>“Home girl is squeaky clean,” Holder leaned forward with his hands on his desk.</p><p>“I tried calling her, no luck,” Sarah continued. “But, Dexter said she wasn’t at work today. Called in sick.”</p><p>“I know a great place that makes a mean chicken noodle soup,” Holder grinned. “We should go wish her well.”</p><p>——</p><p>They were able to get to Maude Barry’s by midday. She had an apartment in Belltown not too far from the P.I.S. offices, in a well-to-do building with a doorman. Sarah and Holder walked up to her apartment door on the third floor. Just as she was about to knock Holder turned to her,</p><p>“How you wanna do this? Good cop, bad cop?”</p><p>“How about we just ask her some questions?” Sarah said looking at him, “If it comes to it I’ll go bad cop later. Deal?”</p><p>“Okay boss, whatever you say.” Sarah shook her head, and knocked on the door. A petite black woman wearing black framed glasses answered, she gripped a shawl wrapped around her neck, “Maude Barry?”</p><p>“Yes?” Maude said curiously, her voice sounded incredibly hoarse, her nose was clearly stuffed.</p><p>“Seattle P.D.” Sarah and Holder showed their detective shields. “We were wondering if we could come in, ask a few questions.”</p><p>“Oh... sure okay,” Maude swung the door open for them to go inside.</p><p>The detectives nodded their thanks and stepped inside, waiting as Maude closed the door behind them. They didn’t go too far into her place staying in the entrance hallway, and turned to speak with her as she stood in front of the door.</p><p>“You don’t sound to good Ms. Barry,” said Sarah.</p><p>“I got this, really bad cold,” Maude responded. “I started to feel it coming on yesterday, but it just knocked me on my ass today you know?”</p><p>“Sorry to hear that, we’ll try to make this as brief as possible.”</p><p>“What’s this about?”</p><p>“Well we’re in the middle of an investigation,” Holder started, “and your company is sort of at the center of it.”</p><p>“P.I.S. you mean?”</p><p>“That’s the one. Anything you can tell us about your boss man Dole?”</p><p>Maude shrugged, “Mr. Dole is, well... he’s a good boss I guess. More recently I’ve been working, like with him. Side by side, you know? But then last week he sort of just shut me out. Which I thought was totally strange... but he said I would still get paid, he said to think of it like vacation time. So I just figured, what the hell you know?” She laughed nervously, fiddling with a necklace she wore, “Is he in some kind of trouble?”</p><p>“Do you know where we could find him? Your boss?” asked Sarah.</p><p>“Sorry, I don’t no.” She said.</p><p>“You’re sure? No clue where he could be?” Holder pressed.</p><p>Maude shook her head.</p><p>“Do you know anything about warehouses Mr. Dole would be concerned about?” Linden asked.</p><p>“You mean the P.I.S. warehouses?”</p><p>“P.I.S. has warehouses?” Holder stepped forward.</p><p>“Three of them,” Maude said nodding. “They’re in separate places but they’re all P.I.S. warehouses.”</p><p>“Do you know why they would have been emptied?” asked Sarah.</p><p>Maude’s eyes widened almost comically, “Emptied?! N-no! They have our entire product stock.”</p><p>“Yeah, well your boss man got them cleared out,” Holder said.</p><p>“What about the other employees? In particular, the sales reps? Do you know anything particular about them?” asked Sarah. Maude looked down at the ground and bit her lip, “Ms. Barry?”</p><p>“He... he never let me near the employee files,” she said.</p><p>“Then why do you look like you got your hand caught in the cookie jar?” Holder asked as he looked at her closely.</p><p>Maude took a deep breath and readjusted the shawl around her shoulders, “Something was up with the way he hired reps, I know there was. The way he protected that information... it was too much, you know? But I don’t know what it was about it, I’m sorry.” She looked from one detective to the other, “What is all of this about?”</p><p>“We’re not at liberty to say,” said Sarah. “We’re going to need to know where those warehouses are though.”</p><p>——</p><p>Holder had gone to Carlson again to let him know about the warehouses, Sarah waited in their office as he supposedly sweet talked the lieutenant. Maude had technically given permission so it shouldn’t be an issue, but because the lieutenant had “a stick up his ass” as Holder had so eloquently put it, they were being extra cautious.</p><p>Sarah was looking at both boards, her instincts told her Maude wasn’t any more involved in the case; more likely she had gotten stuck in the middle of it just like Dexter. Trina on the other hand, the more Linden thought about it, the more she thought Trina knew more then she had led the detectives to believe. Sure, she had been genuinely upset—but to react the way she did had been a vast difference from the first day...</p><p>Holder opened the door and came back inside, “We’re clear Linden.”</p><p>“Great,” she glanced at the clock on the wall. “It’s getting late, let’s take separate cars. I’ll take the first warehouse, you take the second, we’ll meet at the third.”</p><p>Holder hesitated, “Sure you wanna split up boss?”</p><p>Sarah pulled on her coat, “Scared Holder?” She asked in a teasing tone.</p><p>“Nah, I’m not just... ‘member what happened last time?”</p><p>Last time they had split up: Holder had been beaten and left for dead overnight on the Indian Reservation. Sarah froze.</p><p>“We’re running out of time...” she said quietly, almost guiltily.</p><p>“Aight,” Holder shrugged. “I’ll see you at the third one then.” He grabbed his keys and sent her a small salute and Sarah nodded her assent.</p><p>——</p><p>They were losing daylight fast, so they had to work quick. If they moved fast enough by the time they got to the third warehouse the sun would still be up—at least, that was the plan.</p><p>Sarah had gotten slightly lost, the address hadn’t matched the location exactly but soon enough she pulled up to the warehouse, and got out of her car. She glanced at her radio that sat on the cushion of the passengers seat, before decided she didn’t need to take it and left it in the car. Taking her flashlight and withdrawing her Glock from the holster on her hip, she advanced towards the warehouse.</p><p>The sun had begun to set, and orange light streamed through the broken windows of the warehouse, bouncing off of the sharp shards of glass. Sarah cleared each room she passed, turning sharply at each corner, keeping her head and weapon on a swivel as she checked each area. Never lowering her gun and holding the flashlight underneath it. She had cleared three rooms when her cell phone went off. Keeping her Glock up she put her flashlight down in her pocket and retrieved her phone.</p><p>“Linden here,” she answered, her gun still in her right hand out in front of her, the phone in her left pressed to her ear.</p><p>“<em>Yo it’s me,</em>” Holder’s voice came through the small flip phone, “<em>This place is a bust, I don’t got nothin’, so I’m heading to the next location.</em>”</p><p>“Alright, I should be done here soon. I haven’t found anything here either. I’ll you in 20.”</p><p>Without another word she closed the phone and put it back in her pocket, both hands going back to her gun. The sun was fully set now.</p><p>Suddenly the hairs on the back of her neck stood up, she could feel something was off behind her. Before she could turn around, she felt the cold hard muzzle of a gun being pressed to her head.</p><p>“Drop it Detective.”</p><p>It was a cool male voice, that Sarah didn’t recognize. She raised both of her hands with her palms out, her gun pointing up in her right hand. Linden kneeled slowly to put her gun on the floor, her mind going a mile a minute about how best proceed.</p><p>“Listen...” Sarah said calmly, “you obviously know I’m a cop. You don’t want to do this.”</p><p>The gun at her head faltered ever so slightly, and Sarah moved. Swinging out of range to the left and then back toward her attacker, she grabbed the gunman’s wrist and twisted it outwards trying to disarm him. It worked, with a cry of pain he dropped his weapon and the gun clattered to the floor and Linden kicked it across the floor out of immediate range. The man had gone to clutch his wrist to his body, Linden used the opportunity to dive for her own weapon that was close by where she had left it on the ground, but before she could get far the attacker grabbed her ponytail and yanked her backwards towards him. Slamming into his chest she felt her hair obstruct her vision briefly before he held her in a chokehold.</p><p>Sarah pulled at the arm around her neck to no avail, the pressure on her throat and neck increased cutting off her oxygen. Spots began to enter her vision, knowing her time before unconsciousness or death was growing smaller she swung her elbow back into the gut of her attacker once, twice, three times before he released his hold and Sarah fell forward gasping for breath. She didn’t dare take too long getting her bearings, and dove once again for her Glock but the attacker collided with her, full body tackling her to the ground.</p><p>He took advantage of the tackle, and climbed on top of her putting his full weight on her hips making it impossible for Sarah to get him off of her no matter how hard she tried. It was too dark now, she couldn’t see his face as she looked up at him, reaching up, trying to scratch at him, push him away—do anything that would get him off of her, but it was all futile. His hands grabbed Sarah around the neck, and lifted her up partway off of the ground then slammed her head into the concrete surface.</p><p>Linden stopped fighting, stars had exploded in her vision, she felt dazed and sluggish. Her attacker’s weight disappeared and yet she still couldn’t find herself able to move. Sarah was rolled onto her stomach and her hands were pulled behind her, she could feel something being wound and tied around her wrists. Trying to blink away the spots in her vision, Sarah came back to herself slightly as her wrists were being tied. She struggled and tried to turn over so she could roll her way onto her feet and get back up, she wouldn’t just lie on the ground helpless, she would keep fighting back. But then she felt the same pair of hands around her neck again, and her head was slammed into the ground once more.<br/> </p>
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<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Day 4 (continued)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Holder pulled up to the third warehouse, plainly seeing Linden hadn’t shown yet.</p><p>“Fine by me,” he spoke out loud to himself retrieving his box of cigs from his pocket. He lit one and took a long hit, cherishing the nicotine rush that filled his brain.</p><p>It didn’t take him too long to finish the cig, it never did if he was able to smoke uninterrupted. The warehouse Linden had gone to was about 10 minutes away, so it wasn’t a complete surprise that she hadn’t arrived yet. He lit a second cigarette and opened his phone to see if she had sent an update. She hadn’t.</p><p>“C’mon Linden,” Holder closed the phone and threw his head against the headrest of the car seat. They were losing sunlight. “If you’ve gone off on your own again I swear...”</p><p>He finished the second cigarette, opened the phone and called her. It went straight to voice mail.</p><p>“Huh.”</p><p>An unsettling feeling started to creep up on him, he shook it off quickly though. He’d give her another 10 minutes.</p><p>10 minutes came and went, three more cigarettes lay at the foot of his car door. He started the engine and headed towards the warehouse where she was.</p><p>——</p><p>Sarah’s surroundings were pitch black and she couldn’t see anything, her head was throbbing like it never had before, her breathing was shallow and it took her a moment to realize there was a something in her mouth gagging her. She swore she could hear the beating of her own heart along with the rumbling of an engine that she could feel too. As her eyes adjusted to her surroundings Sarah started to see a faded orange light was showing through cracks at the base of the floor she was on—the floor of a car trunk.</p><p>She could feel her hair spread out underneath her, no longer in a ponytail. Ironically, it was this that allowed the events to slowly come back to her, the warehouse, the phone call, the the attack. Checking her person, she moved around to see how much damage had been done in the encounter, but the worst thing seemed to be her head, which felt as though it would split open because of the pain. Sarah went to reach up and feel the damage, only to find her hands bound behind her back with... something, she couldn’t see what but it didn’t feel particularly strong. </p><p>Her holster had been removed, which didn’t make too much of a difference because she remembered she had removed her gun earlier. Sarah moved around as quietly as possible checking her hips, her phone was gone too. One thing she did have though was her badge.</p><p>The binding was weak enough, that if she could get her badge off, Linden was sure she would be able to cut through the bindings with her badge. Rolling onto her side she tried to moved her hips and work the leather badge case off of her belt. It wasn’t easy, and it took a lot longer then she would have liked. Her forehead was wet with sweat by the time the badge finally came off and slid to the trunk floor, where she grasped at it with her bound hands. </p><p>Sarah breathed in deeply through her nose, feeling sick, her head buzzed, and her vision had blurred. She pushed it all back though, she didn’t have any other choice she would deal with the injuries once she had escaped. Sarah opened the leather case and worked the badge out of it, once it was out she used the sharp edges of the badge as best as she could to saw at whatever was binding her hands. It didn’t happen immediately, but soon enough her bindings came off and her hands were free. Sarah reached up and pulled the gag out of her mouth.</p><p>——</p><p>Holder pulled up to the warehouse, Linden’s car was right outside.</p><p>“Man what the hell...” he muttered frustrated. “Hey yo, Linden! Where you at?” </p><p>No answer. He drew his service weapon from his hip and grabbed his flashlight from his pocket before taking his radio from the front seat of the car and putting it in his jacket pocket. Then he closed the car door and headed inside the warehouse, clicking the flashlight on he held it underneath his gun, keeping both gun and flashlight up as made his way through each room.</p><p>He cleared each room advancing through, “C’mon Linden, where you at?” Holder said under his breath. He turned another corner and stopped short. There was a small puddle of blood, and it looked like whosever blood it was, had been dragged away judging by the streaks leading away from the puddle.</p><p>“Shit,” Holder looked around desperately, he put his flashlight away and took out his radio, “This is Detective Holder badge number 4592. Requesting backup and CS Unit at 42 E. Pacific Way. Possible code 97, need immediate assistance.”</p><p>He could see something a few feet away but it was too dark to tell what. He took his flashlight back out and walked towards it. He moved the light onto the unknown pile and saw on the ground Linden’s gun and holster on top of her jacket.</p><p>“Fuck!” Holder’s hands fumbled as he reached for his radio again and found the talk button. “Confirmed code 97, need immediate assistance repeat: missing officer in distress requesting CSU and immediate assistance.”</p><p>——</p><p>Sarah went towards the head of the trunk, feeling on top for the emergency hatch with the pads of her fingers. Once she found it and pulled the hatch, the trunk popped open and the cold air from outside blew into the trunk through the small space as Sarah held onto the hatch it so the trunk didn’t open all the way. </p><p>She looked through the crack she had created holding onto the hatch, to get a feel of the surroundings but it was some wooded area that Linden didn’t recognize it. The car was still moving which was odd, the trunk indicator light on the car’s dashboard would have turned on when she popped the trunk. Perhaps the driver just hadn’t seen it, which was good, because that would give her more time to run.</p><p>Sarah threw herself from the trunk, colliding with the cold hard earth on her shoulder. She rolled with impact to try to minimize any damage, but it still hurt like hell. After what seemed like minutes but had to be brief, her rolling came to a stop and she ignored the pain scrambling to her feet. Sarah began to run not looking back, but didn’t get far before the sound of a gun shot cracked and echoed around the trees and she found herself propelled forward as something hit her left arm. Her feet tripped over some roots and once again she slammed into the forest ground.</p><p>At first Sarah didn’t feel anything, when she hit the earth her head protested the jarring movement and she had no choice but to take a moment and lay on the ground trying to blink away the spots that had appeared in her vision. Then Linden began to feel something soaking through her sweater on her left arm. She looked down, and even though the sweater was dark the blood seeping through was clear as day. That’s when Sarah registered the pain. The yell of pain was instinctual, she cried out and clutched her arm, the bastard had shot her as she had tried to run. She heard hurried footsteps quickly approaching, crunching on the forest’s frozen leaves and knew she had missed her chance at escape.</p><p>“Don’t move,” Sarah looked up at her attacker who had his gun on her. It was the first time she had seen him clearly: he was a mild looking man, brown hair, brown eyes, and a chiseled jaw that normally would have made a man handsome. There was a triumphant air about him that infuriated her. “C’mon Detective, you’re going to get back in the car with me. You’re not going to make a fuss.”</p><p>“If I don’t?” Linden asked breathily.</p><p>The man smiled and readjusted his grip on the gun, “Let’s go.”</p><p>He grabbed her right arm hoisting her to her feet before he thrusted the gun into her side. As she got up Sarah realized she really hadn’t gotten that far away from the car, only ten or twenty feet. Maybe he had seen the indicator light, it was either that or his reaction time was completely inhuman. He walked her to the passenger door and opened it, before going to the glove compartment and taking out a pair of handcuffs.</p><p>“Put your hands behind your back,” he ordered looking down at her.</p><p>“You shot me in the arm,” Sarah bit out. </p><p>The pair of them glared at each other for a moment, then without warning he turned Linden around and slammed her up against the car. A gasp of pain escaped from her lips as he wrenched her arms behind her back and handcuffed her. She was breathing heavily again, the gun shot wound pulling painfully. He placed a hand on her head and pushed her into the front seat and closed the door.</p><p>Getting behind the wheel he kept the gun on her with one hand and another on the wheel as they drove on.</p><p>“Where are we going?” Sarah asked breathily.</p><p>The man didn’t respond.</p><p>——</p><p>They drove for another thirty minutes along a winding road with nothing but tall forest trees on either side. Finally they pulled up to a log cabin, he parked right next to it and got out of the car. Walking over to her door he pulled her out roughly, Linden gritted her teeth as he pulled on the bullet wound. He pushed the gun into her side again.</p><p>“Let’s go,” he marched her towards the house.</p><p>“You don’t want to do this,” she said, trying to see if she could reason with him.</p><p>“You’re right I don’t, but you’ve forced my hand.” </p><p>Sarah turned to look at him, “How?”</p><p>He didn’t respond to the question, “Trust me Detective. I’ve thought this through, I have the experience.”</p><p>They walked through the front door. The inside of the cabin was homey and warm, it was neatly decorated, and kept clean. There was a lack of personalization though, which was off-putting, he walked her down a hallway with bare walls.</p><p>“Experience huh?” Sarah probed, “You’ve done this before?”</p><p>“No,” he said simply. “But I know how to get away with it, I mean I should.” He reach around her and opened up a wooden door before her put her in front of the threshold, “I’m surprised you haven’t figured it out yet Detective. Then again you hit your head pretty hard.”</p><p>“Please do enlighten me,” she said flatly.</p><p>“I handed you the photos from CSU just the other day.”</p><p>Sarah had just about a second to process that statement and barely acknowledge her shock before she was kicked in the chest and felt herself falling briefly before hitting a wooden step, and then another as she tumbled down the stairs. She was unconscious before she hit the floor below.</p><p>——</p><p>Lieutenant Erik Carlson pulled up outside of the warehouse. Half a dozen patrol cars were lit up in front of the place, and there was also a CSU van. Carlson only had eyes for one man though.</p><p>“Holder!”</p><p>Holder had been talking to a CSU tech, when he saw Carlson he excused himself and came over.</p><p>“Hey Lieu, I’m about to head back to the station. Coulda talked to you there.”</p><p>“You really think I would have waited? You called in a 97, that’s some serious shit Holder.”</p><p>The detective’s face darkened, “You don’t need to tell me that sir, she’s my partner.”</p><p>Carlson, uncomfortable, wiped his forehead and put his hands on his hips, “Have the CSU’s found anything?”</p><p>Holder opened and closed his mouth, he found it hard to speak, “Blood. There’s a puddle of blood inside, I asked them to rush the results.”</p><p>Carlson’s face softened, it was very uncharacteristic of him, “Anything else?”</p><p>“We’ve got her gun and holster as well, also her jacket. That’s all I could see though. CSU’s might find more I dunno.”</p><p>The lieutenant looked even more uncomfortable at this news. He scratched his head and nodded, “Alright, get back to the station and get with Ray. See if he can get a trace a her phone.”</p><p>Holder gave a curt nod, “Sir.” Then he walked away.</p><p>——</p><p>When Sarah came back to consciousness, it wasn’t immediate. It was a slow, aching process and eventually she realized it was due to the fact that it wasn’t just her head that was hurting, but that there were aches and pains all over her body. Opening her eyes Sarah found herself on a wooden floor of what had to be the cabin’s basement. The sweater she had been wearing had been taken off, and she he been left in the gray tee she wore underneath. Looking down she saw a piece of her sweater had been cut off and wrapped around her gunshot wound. Another gag had been stuffed and tied around her mouth, she was pretty sure it was also material from her sweater based on the feel of the fabric on her cheeks. The remnants of the sweater lay in a corner of the room. </p><p>A thick rope was wound intricately around her wrists and attached to another rope that was tied around a wooden beam. She tried standing up but the length of the rope attached to the beam was too short. A door opened at the top of the stairs and she looked up to see the man—the cop coming down. He pulled a chair over and bent down in front of her pulling out the gag and letting it hang around her neck, then he sat in the chair in front of her.</p><p>“Introductions then,” he said casually. “I’m Patrick Adams. Officer Adams, as you’ve now figured out I am a cop—being the brilliant detective you are. This is my family’s cabin. It’s barely ever been used, family’s not too big on vacations. Walls aren’t sound proofed for shit, but we’re pretty far away from anybody else so, we don’t have to worry about anything like that.”</p><p>“You killed Stacey Abrams?” asked Sarah feeling sick.</p><p>Adams smiled, “I did. And I plan to get away with it,” he chuckled. “It’s been fun. Watching you and Detective Holder running around in circles, following dead leads. But I have run into some annoyance.”</p><p>“Oh yeah?” she snarled, “What’s that?”</p><p>“You two have been incredibly secretive. Always closing the door to your office. Shutting people out. I’d much rather have been able to keep an eye on the </p><p>“Sorry we’ve been such an inconvenience.” Linden deadpanned.</p><p>“Oh I’m sure you are. But no matter. I’ve decided it’s time for you to solve the case. Well, I say you I obviously mean Holder,” he explained. “I’ve left behind some nice evidence trails that will lead back to Dole.”</p><p>“Dole? Why him?”</p><p>“He’s a patsy, an easy target. Guy only cares about making his money. The car we drove in here? Rented in his name. Then of course your badge in the trunk, which you left along with your blood from your head and DNA on the gag. And that beautiful escape you made! You got just as far as I needed you to get for the shot.”</p><p>It took Sarah longer then usual to compute the information when she did she felt foolish and slammed her eyes shut, “You knew I’d escape from the trunk...”</p><p>“Of course I did. I left you your badge on purpose, I knew you’d use it to saw through that flimsy binding. I had to leave some sort of evidence trail for when they eventually find your mangled body in the woods. The car’s already been dumped back there. And of course the evidence will all point to Bruce Dole, the man who ran a pharmaceutical company with watered down drugs... who hired whores, and addicts and paid them under the table.”</p><p>Anger burned through Sarah’s veins and she spoke in a harsh voice, “There’s no way you’re going to get away with this,” her glare was fierce. “Holder will solve this, and he will find out it’s really you.”</p><p>“I don’t think so, I will get away with it. I may just be on patrol but my name carries some gait. Adams is my mother’s last name. My father? Erik Carlson.” Sarah felt as though the breath had been knocked out of her lungs and Adams reveled in her shock. “You really think they’re going to believe a police lieutenant’s son is murderer?”</p><p>She shook her head, “Holder—”</p><p>“Holder’s a good for nothing tweaker, or he was. Who the fuck is going to believe him?” Chuckling he leaned forward, “Now tell me, where are you with your investigation?”</p><p>If looks could kill Adams would have been a dead man. “Go to hell.”</p><p>Adams stood up and took something out of his jacket pocket, she realized after a moment it was her cellphone, “I was looking through your phone earlier—before I turned it off. And I saw one of your contacts, a Jack Linden?” Adams pulled out his own phone and showed it to her. He had the picture of Sarah and Jack at the Mariners game Regi had taken them to a few years ago. “Hope you don’t mind, I saved it for my own use.”</p><p>Fear joined Sarah’s fury, a lump in her throat prevented her from speaking and her breathing had quickened.</p><p>“He’s your son, right? Oh, but you weren’t a fit enough mother to take care of him so... he went to live with his dad,” Adams looked at the picture on the phone and pouted dramatically.</p><p>“Shut your damn mouth,” Sarah hissed.</p><p>“Imagine that,” Adams continued, putting the phone back in his pocket before and taking off his jacket putting it on the floor. “Letting down your own kid. Even my father never did that to me.”</p><p>“You shut up!” Sarah pulled hard on the ropes, ignoring the pain as they became tighter, digging into her wrists.</p><p>“I hope something doesn’t happen to poor Jack,” he continued smiling at her anger. “He’s in Chicago isn’t he?”</p><p>“Don’t you touch him!” She pulled even harder, wanted nothing more then to throttle him, “Don’t you dare!”</p><p>“Or what?” Adams asked coldly. “There’s nothing you can do to stop me and you know it.” He turned and headed for the stairs, “I’ll give you a few moments to think about that. Maybe it’ll change your mind about your willingness to share.” He went upstairs.</p><p>Tears of fear and frustration threatened to fall from Linden’s eyes, her chest rose and fell with her quick breaths. Her gaze moved down and her heart stuttered: he had left his coat on the floor with her phone inside. She tried reaching out but it was too far away, so she kept pulling, and pulling. The ropes were tightening around her wrists, digging deeper into her skin. Linden didn’t stop though, not even as blood started to seep through around the rope. Sarah was literally biting her tongue to stop any groans of pain from escaping her lips. The ropes had stretched and Sarah was almost there, pulling just a little bit harder her fingertips finally grasped the edge of his jacket and she pulled it towards herself. Taking deep breaths Sarah found her phone easily in the pocket and didn’t waste any time.</p><p>Linden turned on the cell phone and waited as it booted up, her heart pounding in trepidation. The moment it was on, she went to go make a call, and started to dial 911.</p><p>“HEY!” Adams was back, she hadn’t heard him coming. He ripped the phone from Linden’s hands before turning back to her. “What did you do?!” Adams yelled grabbing her chin in a crushing grip. “Huh? What did you do?!”</p><p>“Nothing!” Linden yelled back at him just as fierce. Enraged, Adams threw her phone against the wall and took out his gun before pointing it at her head. Sarah stared down the barrel, waiting for the inevitable. She was terrified but determined not to let him know. Her mind swam with images of Jack, the one good thing she had made during her lifetime. And Holder, and the friendship they had built.</p><p>After what seemed like an eternity, Adams flipped the gun around and raised it before striking her across the face. Linden’s head snapped back, and she could feel blood pouring down her temple. He bent down and grabbed her hair near where her head had hit the floor in the warehouse, her mouth opened as she gasped in pain and he stuffed the gag back in and tying it tightly before storming out of the basement.</p><p>——</p><p>Back at S.P.D. Holder was in the tech room with Ray as he worked on the computer. Holder was pacing towards the back of the room, his hands in the pockets of his hoodie.</p><p>“Holder! I got something!” Ray called.</p><p>“What is it?” Holder sprinted over to the tech.</p><p>“Her phone was turned on briefly. It was turned off before we could get an exact location, but we were able to get a general vicinity of where she might be.”</p><p>The computer zoomed in on the national map, a great wide green circle highlighting an area.</p><p>“Looks like Maple Falls.” Ray said, “Specifically, Silver Lake County Park.”</p><p>“They have some family cabins up there,” said Carlson, he had come up right behind Holder. “We can go canvassing tomorrow.”</p><p>“Tomorrow?!” Holder screeched indignantly, “Sir we have to go now!”</p><p>“Holder, it’s the middle of the night. We don’t have any choice but to wait,” Carlson replied. “I’m sorry. We’ll head out first thing tomorrow.”</p><p>A dejected looking Holder ran his hands through his hair. He knew Carlson was right, but he couldn’t just do nothing.</p><p>——</p><p>Linden leaned against the wooden beam, her knees were tucked into her chest for warmth and she was shivering. There was a gash above her eyebrow were Adams had hit her with his gun. The bleeding had slowed down after she pressed the wound against the beam, the blood had dried on her face and had stopped dripping at the gag around her mouth.</p><p>——</p><p>Back in Seattle, Trina waited outside of a restaurant looking for someone. Her phone buzzed and she looked down to see a text saying “Can’t make it tonight, sorry babe.” and she’s disappointed.</p><p>——</p><p>Adams washed his hands in the bathroom sink. How could he have been so stupid to leave his jacket down there? He was furious.</p>
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<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Day 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>September 8, 2013</p><p>Day 5</p><p> </p><p>Holder hadn’t slept. He sat in the office at S.P.D. on the verge of a tantrum for not being able to do anything. He was waiting on the results from CSU, and there wasn’t anything else he could do other then that right now. It was killing him.</p><p> </p><p>There was a knock at the door, he had left it open for the first time since the start of the investigation. At the door was an officer who brought in CSUs findings from the warehouse. The officer handed over an evidence box that had a file on top. Holder took both inside, and placed it on his desk, he put aside the file and opened the box first; inside in a sealed evidence bag was Linden’s gun and holster. Underneath it in a larger evidence bag was her jacket. There was blood in the bag. Holder hadn’t seen it in the dark warehouse. His eyes squinting, he picked up the bag and saw there was blood on the neck of the jacket.</p><p> </p><p>He found himself staring at the jacket and the gun for a few minutes before he snapped himself out of it and closed his eyes, letting out a shaky breath trying to center himself. Holder put the jacket back in the box and replaced the lid before putting it aside. He picked up the file and opened it, inside was the report on the blood they had found in the warehouse, thought he already knew what it would say.</p><p> </p><p>“Blood Sample : Match Found : I.D. Confirmed to one Sarah Linden.”</p><p> </p><p>Holder couldn’t stop staring at those words. His mind was racing, one of the things he thought about was back to the manhunt Linden had initiated to find him on the reservation; he gritted his teeth and swore to himself he would find his partner. Whoever did this would pay.</p><p> </p><p>“Holder?” Holder’s head snapped up. It was Carlson, standing by the open door.</p><p> </p><p>“It’s her blood,” Holder said quietly.</p><p> </p><p>Carlson looked uncomfortable, he put his hands in his pockets and shifted his feet as he walked a bit further into the office, “We’ll send out patrols in a few hours. We can start canvassing the cabins. I’ll also reach out to Whatcom County in the morning, let them know we’re conducting a search and rescue. They may loan us a few men.” The lieutenant looked at the clock on the wall, it read 3:46 a.m. “You should try to get some rest Detective.”</p><p> </p><p>Somewhere in the back of Holder’s brain he registered that Carlson should rest too but he wasn’t going to say it. He turned to the clock before looking back at his supervisor.</p><p> </p><p>“It takes about two hours to get to Maple Falls,” Holder said. “I’m leaving at 6 a.m. lieu, with or without you.” Without another word he walked out past Carlson.</p><p> </p><p>——</p><p> </p><p>Linden had fallen asleep leaning against the beam she was tied to. When she woke up, her head still throbbing along with the rest of her body. At first she was unsure why she had woken up, but then from upstairs she heard Adams saying:</p><p> </p><p>“I’ll see you soon. Yeah, probably tonight. Have to wrap up here first. Yeah, I’m taking care of it. Yeah, love you too.”</p><p> </p><p>He wasn’t lying when he said the walls were really thin.</p><p> </p><p>——</p><p> </p><p>The biting cold greeted Holder as he stepped out of his car to join the other officers that formed the search team at the front of Silver Lake County Park. In addition to the officers from S.P.D., Carlson had reached out to the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Department—since it was in their jurisdiction—and they had sent a few officers as well. An electric energy seemed to emanate from the group, they turned as one to Holder as he came to join them.</p><p> </p><p>Holder held a paper map and spread it out on the hood of a patrol car, the officers circled around him and silence fell among them.</p><p> </p><p>“We go door to door,” Holder said. “You see, find, or hear anything suspicious you call it in. Detective Sarah Linden is somewhere in this area.” He used a red marker to circle the area Ray had shown him, “We have to assume that she’s hurt, or being held captive. For those of you who don’t know, Sarah Linden is approximately five foot two inches tall, has blue eyes, and light red hair. We have no reason to believe she isn’t alive.”</p><p> </p><p>“When do we decide if it’s a recovery mission?” asked one of the patrol officers.</p><p> </p><p>Holder glared at him, “We don’t. Keep your radios turned on and communicate regularly. If she is being held captive, we assume we have a suspect who is armed and dangerous so proceed with caution, ya got me? Move out!”</p><p> </p><p>——</p><p> </p><p>“Good morning Detective!” Adams said brightly as he walked down the stairs. He removed her gag and sat in the chair across from her, “Let’s get started shall we?”</p><p> </p><p>“I’m not going to tell you anything,” Sarah said firmly, swallowing trying to lubricate her dry throat.</p><p> </p><p>Adams walked forward and ripped off the blood soaked sweater piece that had been wrapped around her bullet wound. His hand gripped the wound tightly, and Sarah yelled out in pain as his fingers became covered in her blood.</p><p> </p><p>——</p><p> </p><p>Holder was on his fifth cabin. So far all he had dealt with were retired elderly couples who were shocked to find a murder cop at their door. He drove to the next location and pulled up in front of the cabin. It looked like all of the other cabins he had been to, homey, cozy. Neat and taken care of, like a family home. He walked up the stairs to the front porch and knocked on the door.</p><p> </p><p>——</p><p> </p><p>Sarah and Adams froze their faces inches away from each other. Someone was knocking on the front door upstairs Sarah looked at Adams, she couldn’t quite interpret the look on his face. Then she heard, “Seattle P.D.!” She would recognize that voice anywhere.</p><p> </p><p>Adams grabbed Linden by the hair on the back of her head, she gritted her teeth and swallowed the groan that tried to escape from her lips.</p><p> </p><p>He jammed the gun into her neck, “If you make a sound, I will kill him,” Adams hissed, “You hear me?” Sarah scowled at him, and Adams almost smiled. “Open your mouth.”</p><p> </p><p>Reluctantly, Sarah did as she was told, and Adams tied the gag back around her mouth. He lowered the gun and tucked it into the back of his pants before he walked up the stairs.</p><p> </p><p>——</p><p> </p><p>Holder knocked on the cabin door for the fourth time. He could hear approaching footsteps, and the door opened.</p><p> </p><p>“Can I help you?” asked the man who answered.</p><p> </p><p>“Yeah,” Holder said flashing his badge, “I’m with Seattle P.D. we’re going around the cabins asking if anyone’s seen anything suspicious in the area.”</p><p> </p><p>——</p><p> </p><p>Downstairs Sarah could hear the entire conversation taking place upstairs. She pulled as hard as she could against the ropes, but it was no use. Breathing heavily through her nose she tried to think about what she could do. Escape seemed so close, Holder was right upstairs... and she refused to die down here or leave her son at the mercy of this traitor.</p><p> </p><p>The gunshot wound on her left arm oozed blood, and Sarah suddenly remembered Adams’ violent outburst from last night. She had an idea.</p><p> </p><p>——</p><p> </p><p>“Oh um...” The man seemed to think about it, and he shook his head. “Sorry no. Nothing suspicious.”</p><p> </p><p>Holder shifted his feet frustrated, “Seen nothin’ out of the ordinary recently?”</p><p> </p><p>“What is this about?” The man crossed his arms and leaned against the doorway. That’s when Holder noticed blood on his fingers.</p><p> </p><p>“You go hunting?” asked Holder.</p><p> </p><p>The man laughed, “Oh no, I can’t stomach it.”</p><p> </p><p>Holder chuckled with him before he said, “Then why you got blood on your hands?”</p><p> </p><p>The man looked down alarmingly, “Oh! You know what...” he paused for just a moment too long, “I cut myself earlier. Was trying to stop the blood flow,” he smiled. “Clumsy of me right?”</p><p> </p><p>Holder huffed, “Right,” he held out a business card. “Give me a call if you see anything?”</p><p> </p><p>The man took the card. “Sure,” he said. Holder started to walk away, “You still haven’t said what this is about?” he called after Holder.</p><p> </p><p>The detective turned, “Thanks for your time.” and then he was gone.</p><p> </p><p>The man closed the door, and Holder started to walk away, but instead of going back to his car he snuck around to the back of the cabin. The guy had obviously lied about the blood and he needed to figure out why. Sneaking around the back he was disappointed to find no windows, only a wooden door. He couldn’t go inside without probable cause.</p><p> </p><p>——</p><p> </p><p>Adams went back down the staircase to the basement, Linden looked up at him from her position on the floor.</p><p> </p><p>“I saw your partner,” Adams said walking over to her. “He doesn’t look too good, seems pretty stressed out.” He removed the gag from her mouth.</p><p> </p><p>If she acted now, Holder might still hear them. She licked her lips and stared at Adams as though she were analyzing him, “I figured it out Adams. You think you’re a big man don’t you?”</p><p> </p><p>He didn’t look at her, he stared down at the gag in his hands, his leg shaking up and down.</p><p> </p><p>“You’re just doing this to get daddy’s attention aren’t you? He never really loved you; you’ve been spending your life trying to impress him and you still haven’t some twenty odd years later. Hell, he doesn’t even let you use his last name. But when you come out as the one who solves the case, daddy will be so proud. He’ll see you as a man, as his equal.”</p><p> </p><p>Adams’ leg was shaking even faster now. Sarah sat up straighter and locked eyes with him “Well I’ve got some news for you... you’re nothing but a daddy’s boy...and a murderer.”</p><p> </p><p>Adams yelled furiously, he swung back a fist and struck her across the face. Sarah grunted in pain, but he wasn’t done. “Stupid bitch!” Adams stomped on her chest sending her back into the wooden beam. She coughed and tried turning on her side, but Adams dove on top of her and slammed her against the beam. He pummeled her face socking her in the eye, then he wrapped his hands around her throat and squeezed.</p><p> </p><p>——<br/><br/></p><p>Holder had heard the ferocious yell; his probable cause was granted. He drew his weapon and kicked in the back door, following the sound of the yelling, “Stupid bitch!” The shout came from an open door, that led to a wooden staircase. Holder went part way down the stairs and saw the back of the man from earlier, on his knees with a gun tucked into the waist of his pants. Holder couldn’t see what he was doing, but the man was grunting and yelling moving violently.</p><p> </p><p>“Police, turn around!” Holder yelled.</p><p> </p><p>Faster than Holder would have thought possible the man withdrew the gun from his waist and pointed it at—his partner’s head.</p><p> </p><p>“Linden...” Holder saw she was tied to the wooden beam, a thick rope around her wrists. Her sweater was gone, and her grey t-shirt was stained with blood. She looked like hell. He looked back at the man, “Put the gun down.”</p><p> </p><p>The man shook his head and said, “I’ve worked too hard for this, you won’t ruin it.” He pointed the gun at Holder and took a shot.</p><p> </p><p>Holder dove down the remainder of the stairs and returned fire, staying well aware of Linden’s position so as not to shoot her. The man got up and went behind the beam and suddenly the room plunged into darkness.</p><p> </p><p>“Shit!” Holder exclaimed, his hand dove into his pocket for his flashlight. He clicked it on and went over to the beam and felt around the back of it finding a switch. He flipped it back on, and the room filled with light again, but the man was gone. “Fuck!”</p><p> </p><p>“Holder...”</p><p> </p><p>Holder looked down and saw Linden laying at his feet, “I got you Sarah.”</p><p> </p><p>He holstered his Glock, knelt down and pulled out his radio, “This is Detective Holder, location is cabin at 727 Oak Tree Lane. Request medics and backup to my location, I have Linden. A suspect has fled: male, late twenties, brown hair, brown eyes. He’s wearing jeans and a gray shirt. Suspect is armed and dangerous.” There were voices that responded over the radio but he didn’t pay them any mind.</p><p> </p><p>“Holder, Stephen...” Sarah said, a little punch drunk, “Can you...please?” She was swinging her hands slightly.</p><p> </p><p>He patted himself down and cursed, “I don’t got nothing I’m sorry.” He stood up and scanned the room, it was bare except for a chair and the scraps of Linden’s sweater. Holder grabbed his radio again, “This is Holder—anyone en route what’s your eta?”</p><p> </p><p>“<em>Whatcom County Deputy here, I’m pulling up to the cabin now,</em>” responded one uniform.</p><p>“Bring something to cut through rope.”</p><p> </p><p>There was a brief pause, “...<em>Copy</em>.”</p><p> </p><p>Holder heard footsteps upstairs, “Down here!” he called. The Whatcom County deputy came down, holding a pocket knife, “Let me see that.”</p><p> </p><p>The deputy handed the knife over without question, Holder took it and started sawing at the rope around Sarah’s wrists. As soon as it went through and the ropes were cut, she pushed away the binds and tried to get up.</p><p> </p><p>Holder put a hand on her shoulder to keep her down, “Woah, woah, no don’t get up, we gotta get you checked out. You look like shit Linden.”</p><p> </p><p>“I need to get out of here,” she said, her voice trembling and desperate. “Really, I can’t stay here, please I need to get out. Get me out.”</p><p> </p><p>Holder paused briefly, she couldn’t look him in the eye but the desperation in her voice was enough to convince him. He looked at the officer who had come down, “Help me out here?”</p><p> </p><p>“You sure?” The deputy said, sounding hesitant.</p><p> </p><p>Holder nodded, so together they took each of Sarah’s arms around their shoulders. Getting her on her feet, they walked taking the stairs one at a time, and then to the front of the house where the patrol car and Holder’s car both were. The two of them sat her down on the curb near Holder’s car as gently as they could.</p><p> </p><p>Sarah was shaking now, whether from adrenaline or the temperature, Holder didn’t know. He took off his own jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders, she didn’t acknowledge him.</p><p> </p><p>“ETA on the EMTs?” He asked into his radio.</p><p> </p><p>“<em>ETA 3 minutes,</em>” came a garbled response.</p><p> </p><p>“Is there anything I can do?” asked the deputy, he had stepped back from them after helping Sarah to the ground.</p><p> </p><p>Holder shook his head, “Just go secure the scene. We’ll probably get some lip for messing with it a bit but I’ll take the fall.”</p><p> </p><p>“Alright,” the deputy nodded and went back to the cabin.</p><p> </p><p>Holder looked at Sarah; she was clutching her left arm and shaking. He sat next to her gently placing a hand on her right shoulder, “They’re almost here Linden, you’re gonna be okay.”</p><p> </p><p>“Did you recognize him?” She asked in a quiet voice.</p><p> </p><p>“Recognize who?” Holder said. “The guy who took you?” At her nod he shook his head, “No, I didn’t. Should I have?”</p><p> </p><p>Linden nodded and pressed her lips together, “He’s a cop.”</p><p> </p><p>It took Holder a moment to process that, he looked around to make sure the deputy was out of ear shot. “The fuck?!”</p><p> </p><p>“He’s Carlson’s son,” she continued. “He’s the lieutenant’s son, and he’s going to get away with it...” Sarah turned to look at him, “He’s going to get away with it Holder.”</p><p> </p><p>Holder sat there gaping for a moment, they could hear sirens approaching. His hand gently squeezed her shoulder, “No he’s not. We won’t let him.”</p><p> </p><p>She turned away and stared blankly ahead. “He knows about Jack.” The ambulance pulled up.</p><p>——</p><p>Adams sat in his car, looking down he saw his shirt had blood on it. He looked in his spare bag and switched the one he was wearing out for a new one. Then he turned off his car and going to his trunk he opened a garment bag and changed into his police uniform. Adams closed the trunk and locked the car.</p><p> </p><p>He was back at the Seattle Police Station.</p><p> </p><p>——</p><p>Holder looked through the window at Sarah lying in the hospital bed. He was still reeling from everything that had gone down that morning. His partner was safe, but now they had a killer cop to deal with, and just how were they supposed to deal with that?</p><p>His phone rang, he looked down and saw it was Jack Linden. Ain’t that just swell timing? “Yo what up little man?” he said, hoping his weariness didn’t come through his voice.</p><p>“<em>Hey Holder,</em>” Jack said, “<em>do you know where mom is? Her phone keeps going straight to voicemail.</em>”</p><p>“Yeah, she’s just catching up on her beauty sleep you know?” Holder lied. “I’ll let her know you called.”</p><p>Jack huffed, “<em>Well, can you let her know now? Because she’s supposed to pick me up.</em>”</p><p>Holder froze, “What do ya mean?”</p><p>“<em>I’m here.</em>”</p><p>“Here where?”</p><p>“<em>The airport? I just flew in, I’m supposed to spend the week with her.</em>”</p><p>Holder turned and looked at his partner in the bed, her earlier words echoed in his head:<em> He knows about Jack</em>. “Don’t move,” Holder commanded, turning around and running down the hallway of the hospital. “Don’t move, you hear me?”</p><p>“<em>Uhh, okay?</em>” Jack was oblivious. “<em>What’s going on?</em>”</p><p>Holder ran through the lobby and outside, he pulled out his car keys and slid behind the wheel. “I’m coming to get you Jack. Just—just go to the lost and found and STAY THERE.”</p><p>Now Jack could tell something was wrong, “<em>Where’s my mom?</em>”</p><p>“I’ll explain everything kid,” Holder said. “I promise. Do what I say: go to the lost and found and stay right there! You stay there!” He hung up the phone and ran the siren as he tore out of the parking lot.</p><p>——</p><p>“Is that the evidence from the cabin where Detective Linden was found?”</p><p>“Yep,” said the tech. “I was about to bring it over to Detective Holder’s office. He’s lead on the case, and asked to have it put there.”</p><p>“Actually, he sent me over to get it. I can take it off your hands,” the tech looked hesitant. “I can call him if you like? It’s just, he’s with his partner in the hospital. That’s why I’m here.”</p><p>“Oh! Oh no that won’t be necessary,” said the techbefore handing over the box.</p><p> </p><p>“Thanks,” Adams said as he walked out with the box.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Day 5 (continued)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Holder’s flashers and sirens were still blaring as he drove up to the airport. He pulled up to the curb and killed the siren leaving the flashers on, a security guard standing outside looked like he was about to stop him.</p><p>“What, the siren not enough for you asswipe?!” Holder yelled flashing his shield as he went right past the guy.</p><p>Holder ran to the lost and found, and heaved a great sigh of relief. Jack was right where he promised to be, tapping away on his cell phone. Holder couldn’t decide what the bigger relief of the day was, finding Linden or finding her kid. He lumbered up to Jack.</p><p>“Hey little man.”</p><p>Jack looked up from his phone, “Hey Holder.”</p><p>“C’mon,” Holder said as he put his arm around the kid’s shoulder and looked around to see if anyone was watching them. Neither of them said anything as they walked through the airport to get outside. Holder’s car was still lit up and it didn’t escape Jack’s notice.</p><p>“Holder...”</p><p>“Yo gimme your suitcase,” said Holder. Jack handed it over and the detective placed it in the trunk. “Go on get in.”</p><p>Jack climbed in the car and Holder got behind the wheel, pulling away from the curb and killing the flashers. A moment of silence passed between them. For Holder it was the overwhelming relief, for Jack, it was the anticipation.</p><p>“Where’s my mom?” Jack asked again after a few minutes of silence.</p><p>Holder glanced at him before he looked back at the road, “She’s uh... she’s in the hospital.”</p><p>Jack’s head snapped towards him, “What?!”</p><p>“Listen she’s okay!” Holder winced. “Well, she will be.”</p><p>“What happened?!” Jack’s voice cracked, he sounded near hysterics.</p><p>Holder really hated his life sometimes. “Your moms was attacked,” he realized that’s wasn’t entirely truthful. “Well.. she was taken by someone and attacked. We got her back though, aight? She’s okay.”</p><p>“Do you know who did it?”</p><p>Holder rubbed his forehead, “She and I know.”</p><p>“Have you arrested him?” No response. “Why did you sound freaked out when you found out I was here? Why’d you drive over here with the lights on?” Smart kid. “He’s still out there, isn’t he? You didn’t catch him.”</p><p>Holder glanced over at him, “It’s complicated kid.”</p><p>Jack looked out the window, he spoke quietly, “What happened... is she okay?” He was crying.</p><p>“Hey,” Holder reached out and rubbed the kid’s shoulder. “She’s alright, aight? I found her, and I got her out of there.”</p><p>Another small period of silence passed, filled only with the sound of the wheels on the road and Jack’s occasional sniffling.</p><p>“Can I see her?” Jack asked, he sounded so small.</p><p>“‘Course little man. ‘Course you can.”</p><p>——</p><p>The first thing Linden thought as she woke up was how cold she was. The air smelled strongly of disinfectant, and she heard the beeping of a heart monitor not too far away. Slowly she opened her eyes, and saw a black and white speckled ceiling. Looking down she saw an IV in her arm, a monitor on her finger, and that her left arm was in a sling. Sarah took off the monitor, pulled out the IV, and sat up slowly, more sore then she’d ever been in her life, perhaps even more then childbirth. Reaching up she remembered her hair was down, she touched the back of her head and felt a few stitches over where her head had been slammed into the ground.</p><p>But no matter how sore she was, she could walk and that was all that mattered. Sarah took off the thin hospital blanket with her right arm and swung her legs over the side of the bed. </p><p>Standing up she felt a little wobbly at first, but she was determined to get changed, and leave so she could nail Adams. And she couldn’t do that from in here. Suddenly, she noticed a nurse standing in the doorway. Removing her monitor had caused some kind of shrill beeping alarm that she hadn’t even noticed until she saw the nurse.</p><p>“Ma’am you should still be in bed.” </p><p>“That’s not necessary,” Sarah replied. “I’m fine and I’m leaving.”</p><p>“Ma’am—”</p><p>“I don’t want to hear it!” </p><p>“Mom?”</p><p>Sarah looked up and saw Jack and Holder standing in the doorway right behind the nurse.</p><p>“Jack,” she said quietly, surprised.</p><p>“Mom!” Jack started to run to her.</p><p>“Easy lil’ man,” Holder called.</p><p>Jack slowed down and gently embraced his mother.</p><p>“What are you doing here?” Sarah said, urgency creeping into her voice. “You... you can’t be here.”</p><p>“I’m not leaving,” said Jack. “I’m not going anywhere.”</p><p>“No!” Sarah almost shouted, her body trembling. “It’s not safe!”</p><p>The nurse called for a sedative.</p><p>“Woah no. Easy there Nurse Ratched,” said Holder, pulling out his detective shield. “There’s no need for that, don’t get all frisky with your sharp objects and whatnot. Just give us a few moments, aight?” Reluctantly, the nurse left, and Holder turned to his partner. “Why don’t you take a seat Linden? You look like you’re about to keel over.”</p><p>She shook her head, “I have to go. I have to make sure we get him.”</p><p>“Why haven’t you arrested him yet?” asked Jack.</p><p>“They won’t believe me,” Sarah said.</p><p>“Why not?”</p><p>“It’s complicated Jack,” her son didn’t know about her second trip to the psych ward, then there was the lieutenant and his trust in her. Her right hand went to her son’s face, cupping his chin so they look directly into each other’s eyes, “But for now, I need you to be safe.”</p><p>“I’m not leaving you,” Jack said firmly, then looked at her from head to toe. “No offense mom, but you look horrible.”</p><p>“Yeah that’s what happens when you get shot,” said Holder.</p><p>“Holder!” Linden hissed.</p><p>“You were shot?!” Her son cried.</p><p>“Jack,” she put her hand on his shoulder. “I’m okay. I’m fine.”</p><p>“You look like shit!”</p><p>“Hey language—”</p><p>“He ain’t wrong,” Holder added.</p><p>Sarah glared at her partner, then she turned back to Jack, “No one else can do this. I can’t explain why, not until it’s done. But I need you to trust me.”</p><p>Jack stared into his mother’s eyes for what seemed like an eternity. She had missed those eyes, it sent a pang of longing through her heart. “I am not leaving.”</p><p>Linden closed her eyes and let out a breath, “Alright, let’s go.”</p><p>“Hey yo, Linden.” said Holder. “You wanna get changed?”</p><p>Sarah looked down at herself, “Oh, yeah that’s... probably a good idea.” </p><p>“Yeah that concussion ain’t bad at all,” Holder muttered. “Lucky for you I had a feelin’ you’d want to fly the coop. Took the liberty of getting you a change of clothes,” he handed her a plastic bag. “And a hair tie.”</p><p>“Thanks Holder. Just, give me a few minutes.”</p><p>——</p><p>Holder had helped Sarah pull her hair into a very loose ponytail and the base of her skull, she hadn’t been able to do it with one hand. Pulling her hair back displayed some of her more noticeable injuries like the gash above her eyebrow and the black eye, not to mention the bruising around her throat. Sarah didn’t acknowledge the injuries, and Holder pretended not to see them. Jack tried to do the same, but he couldn’t stop looking at the contusions.</p><p>Sarah had put on the clothes Holder had brought, including a forest green and white sweater with a turtle neck that covered the bruising on her throat, Holder had definitely thought ahead. When she had seen the sweater he met her gaze and gave her a small nod which she reciprocated to indicate she was grateful. </p><p>She sat in the passenger seat of Holder’s car, Jack sat in the back, and Holder was at the wheel.</p><p>“You’re to stay in the car,” Sarah said to Jack, “you lock the doors and you keep them locked. Don’t open them for anyone. The only cops you trust are me and Holder okay?”</p><p>Jack was a smart kid, and Linden wasn’t exactly being very subtle so it didn’t come as too much of a surprise when he asked, “Mom, were you attacked by another cop?”</p><p>Sarah shut her eyes and took in a shaky breath. “You keep the doors locked. Anything happens you call me or Holder.”</p><p>“Linden,” Holder said softly, “you don’t have a phone.”</p><p>She flinched, flashing back to when Adams had thrown her phone against the wall and pointed the gun in her face. She had thought that would be it for her, but instead he had struck her with the butt of the weapon.</p><p>“You call Holder,” she corrected herself quietly.</p><p>She would have time to grieve, time to deal with what happened to her, time to process, but that time wasn’t now. Right now there was work to be done, and a victim who still deserved justice.</p><p>They pulled into the parking lot at the precinct, and the detectives get out of the car. Holder clicked the fob and locked the doors before sending a salute to Jack. Sarah walked stiffly and with a slight limp trying to find a stride that didn’t hurt her cracked ribs. They made their way into the station.</p><p>Everyone they passed stared at them. It’s was like the parting of the Red Sea, as Holder and Linden went further into the station the crowds dissipated to let them through.</p><p>“Evidence should be in the office,” said Holder choosing not to acknowledge the onlookers. “With it we should be able to build a solid case against him. No one’ll question us.” They went into the office but it was clear nothing new was there.</p><p>“Holder...” Sarah spoke quietly, apprehensively.</p><p>“They said they would send it, directly here. I made sure they knew!”</p><p>“Why didn’t you pick it up yourself?!” Sarah cried.</p><p>Holder turned to her, “I went to get your boy at the airport.”</p><p>She fell silent.</p><p>“Maybe CSU still has it,” said Holder turning towards the door.</p><p>“No,” she said quietly, “he took it. I know he did, he took it so he could get rid of the evidence. I told you he would get away with it,” she looked at Holder, tears of frustration shining in her eyes. Sarah Linden wasn’t usually one to show her emotions, but she seemed to be reaching a breaking point. “I was in the psych hospital for the second time in my career a year ago, Carlson backed the decision—”</p><p>“That was a set up we both know it,” Holder butted in.</p><p>“It doesn’t matter, credibility is gone! That bastard is going to get away with this, and he said...” she stopped herself and closed her eyes, wishing she had just kept her mouth shut. Damn concussion was loosening her tongue.</p><p>“What?” asked Holder.</p><p>“It doesn’t matter,” she said hoping he would drop it.</p><p>“No, tell me.”</p><p>Sarah took a deep breath and spoke quietly, “He said that you’re a good for nothing tweaker. And no one would believe you.”</p><p>Holder shook his head and put his arms up on the back of his neck.</p><p>“Linden!” The detectives both jumped, it was Carlson. The lieutenant stood in the doorway of their office. “What the hell are you doing out of the hospital? I sent Reddick over there to get your statement.”</p><p>“I’m fine sir,” Sarah said.</p><p>“No,” Carlson said back, looking her up and down. “No you’re not. You’re on medical leave, for at least 2 weeks. And you’re off the case.”</p><p>Sarah’s legs gave out.</p><p>“Shit!” Holder exclaimed. He and Carlson both reached out to catch her, Holder got there just in time before she hit the floor. She was still staring at Carlson.</p><p>“Sir,” her tone dangerous and quiet. “Sir you can’t do that. Please... I need to finish this.”</p><p>“Detective,” Carlson said trying to be what he thought was friendly, “you’ve been shot in the arm and you have a major concussion. Not to mention your other injuries, I can’t have you out in the field. You’re a liability,” he sighed. “I’m sorry this happened Linden. I know how you feel about the job, but you cannot work in this condition, and we still need to debrief you. I’ll have Reddick come back over.”</p><p>“Already here,” Reddick had just walked in. “Nurse told me about the stunt you pulled to get out.”</p><p>“Stunt?” Carlson whirled back on Holder and Linden.</p><p>“Yeah lieu, she hasn’t been discharged,” Reddick said. “Holder snuck her out with a kid.”</p><p>“A kid? What kid?”</p><p>“Mine,” Sarah said shakily. “My kid, my, um... Jack’s here. He’s waiting in the car.”</p><p>“Debrief could take a while, Holder can go get him, bring him inside. We’ll get you debriefed here, and then we’ll get you a ride back to the hospital with your son. Detective Holder has some work to do I’m sure.” Carlson left before they could argue.</p><p>Reddick looked down at Sarah and Holden on the floor. It was picturesque the way he had caught his partner and now held her, her strawberry blonde hair cascading over his thigh and onto the floor. Like some sort of deranged Renaissance painting.</p><p>“Need some help?” The older Detective asked.</p><p>“Uh, yeah could you just...” Holder gestured, Reddick bent over and helped him get Sarah to her feet gently, “Can you walk?” Holder asked.</p><p>“I’m fine,” she bit out, an undertone of fear in her voice. “Can you give me a minute?” she asked Reddick.</p><p>He nodded, “Interrogation 1 when you’re ready,” then he left.</p><p>Sarah turned to Holder, “I can’t tell them it was Adams. I don’t have any evidence to corroborate it and he’s the lieutenant’s son. They’re going to think I’ve lost it and throw me back into the psych ward,” she said.</p><p>“It’s gonna be okay Linden.”</p><p>She plowed on, “You can’t bring Jack in here... it’s not safe. We don’t know who else might be involved, and Adams already took the evidence from CSU—”</p><p>“Hey,” Holder spoke softly and gently reached out placing his hands on her shoulders. “You really think I’d let anything happen to that kid?”</p><p>Sarah stopped and closed her eyes briefly before opening them again and meeting his gaze. “No, of course not.”</p><p>“Go to your debrief,” said Holder. “We’ll figure things out after that okay?”</p><p>She nodded and headed for the door, “Holder?” He turned to look at her. She seemed to have trouble saying what she wanted to say, “I... Thank-you... for, finding me. I ne—. Thank-you.” </p><p>Holder grinned, “You’re my BFF, and you’re my ride Linden. Though maybe not for a while ‘cause of the bum wing.” He flapped his arm like a bird.</p><p>She gave him a small smile but it fell just as soon as it had come. Sarah turned to leave but then she stopped again, “Holder...”</p><p>“Yeah?”</p><p>“Don’t let Jack watch the debrief.”</p><p>Holder nodded, “I won’t.”</p><p>——</p><p>Adams watched from down the hall and around the corner as Sarah went into interrogation.</p><p>Then he saw Holder walk out after her and head to the front of the station.<br/>——</p><p>Sarah sat across from Reddick in Interrogation One.</p><p>“So...” Reddick said. “Let’s get started.”</p><p>——</p><p>Holder went out to the car, and pressed the key fob to unlock it then opened the back door, “Come on out little man.”</p><p>“I thought I needed to stay in the car?” said Jack climbing out.</p><p>“Well, now you’re going to be glued to my side.”</p><p>“Glued?”</p><p>“Yup!” Holder one-arm hugged him and didn’t let go. “Seriously kid... you don’t go no where without me, ya hear?”</p><p>Jack nodded and they walked into the station. “Where’s mom?”</p><p>“She’s uh...”</p><p>“Don’t lie, you already lied about the hospital.”</p><p>Holder looked down at the kid incredulously, “How so?”</p><p>“When I asked you where she was over the phone, you just said she was asleep.”</p><p>“Technically that wasn’t a lie little man, your moms was asleep.”</p><p>“Yeah, in a hospital bed!”</p><p>They walked into the office, Holder directed Jack into his mother’s chair. When Holder turned he saw the board with the gruesome pictures of the murder. Linden was going to kill him.</p><p>“Shit!” He had completely forgotten.</p><p>“Holder?”</p><p>“Hang on!”</p><p>Holder looked around desperately, having given his jacket to Sarah earlier all he was left with was his hoodie. He took off the hoodie, grabbed some tape up off of his desk, and taped it on the board covering the photos. Holder turned to Jack, who just looked amused. The detective played it cool by crossing his arms and leaning back.</p><p>“Your moms is fine, again—I mean she’s still fine. But she had to uh, do a debrief with another cop about what happened.”</p><p>“You mean how she was kidnapped by another cop?”</p><p>“Don’t—!” Holder ran to the office door, looked up and down the hallway, then closed it. He turned back to Jack, “Listen, you cannot say that in here. Don’t ever say that again alright?”</p><p>The kid was indignant, “But it’s true! Won’t she be telling that cop debriefing her?!”</p><p>“Nah, little man,” Holder shook his head. “She won’t. She can’t. It’s... really complicated.”</p><p>Jack shook his head frustrated, Holder put a hand on his shoulder trying to comfort him. “It’s all gonna be okay.”</p><p>——</p><p>“At any point did you see your attacker?” asked Reddick.</p><p>Sarah looked down at her hands on the table. “No.”</p><p>“Nothing? No face, no name?”</p><p>She looked up into his eyes, “I don’t know who he was.”</p><p>——</p><p>Adams walked the hallway of the precinct, Detective Linden’s and Holder’s office door was closed. He could see through the window though, Holder was in there with a kid. Jack Linden.</p><p>Walking further down the hallway he went by Interrogation 1 where he knew Sarah was giving her debrief.</p><p>——</p><p>Holder and Jack sat in the office tossing the basketball Holder kept in his desk back at forth to one another. Jack caught the ball and shot it at the hoop that hung on the wall and it went in.</p><p>Holder cheered and went to pick up the ball and Jack smiled. They didn’t notice the outline of Adams outside the window.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Day 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>September 9, 2013<br/>Day 6</p><p>Sarah woke up to the same speckled ceiling as yesterday. Holder had driven her and Jack back to the hospital last night after the debrief with Reddick. Carlson had offered to have a patrol officer take them but she had freaked and Holder interceded on her behalf.</p><p>She looked to her right and saw Jack was sleeping in a cot—hospital chair by day, cot by night—a kind nurse had brought him a pillow and blanket when they had come back last night. She watched her son’s peaceful sleeping figure, listened to the sound of his steady breathing, and found herself wanting nothing more then to hold him.</p><p>It didn’t seem like that long ago that she had been standing in the airport and sending him away, ripping out a piece of her heart for his own good. When she had been down in the cabin basement, she really thought she might never see him again, and that had scared her more then anything else. He was her life, and she loved him more then she could or would ever love herself. She looked away as she felt her eyes begin to burn.</p><p>Sarah shifted uncomfortably in the bed, still in a considerable amount of pain. Her head still ached and the gunshot wound on her arm was throbbing, not to mention the other aches from throwing herself out of the trunk and being pushed down the stairs. The cold room didn’t help, it only amplified her discomforts, she groaned a little trying to adjust her position and move her arm, actually panting from the effort it took to do something that should have been very simple.</p><p>“Mom?” Jack had woken up.</p><p>“Hey,” Sarah softly turning her head towards him. “I’m sorry if I woke you, go back to sleep.”</p><p>He sat up, “I’m fine, you okay?” His face became serious, “Tell the truth.”</p><p>She quirked her lip up, her son was calling her out on her own bullshit.</p><p>“I’m a bit sore,” she answered truthfully. “And I’m cold, really cold. I don’t remember the delivery room being this cold when I gave birth to you.”</p><p>“Do you want my blanket?”</p><p>“No,” she shook her head before stopping abruptly, the room had begun to spin and her head pain had increased ten fold with the motion. They sat in silence for a few moments, she was trying to get her breathing back under control.</p><p>“That Doctor was really annoyed with you for leaving yesterday,” Jack said with a smile. “I thought he was going to burst a blood vessel or something.”</p><p>Sarah laughed lightly, “Yeah well, he’ll get over it. Hey,” she put out her hand on the bed and he took it, “I’m really sorry you ended up in the middle of this, things were not supposed to go this way this week.”</p><p>“You think I care? Mom, I’m just glad you’re okay. This isn’t your fault, whoever did this to you...it’s their fault.”</p><p>She rubbed her thumb over his hand, looking into his eyes, eyes she thought she might never see again. Her lip trembled, “I’m sorry.” She turned away from him.</p><p>“What’s wrong?”</p><p>Sarah let out a breath, “I just...” she bit her lip. “You’re my boy, Jack. The best of me,” Jack gave her a small smile a blush coming to his cheeks. “And apparently you’re doing a tremendous job growing up. I’m so proud of you.”</p><p>“I learned from the best.”</p><p>“Excuse me?” Sarah looked up to see there was a nurse in the doorway, “Someone paged for pain meds?”</p><p>“N-no...?” Sarah’s confusion was ineffable.</p><p>“She’s still a bit sore,” Jack said. “She’s having trouble moving around. And can we maybe get another blanket?”</p><p>“No problem,” the nurse went over to the IV attached to Linden.</p><p>Sarah turned to her son, “Jack...”</p><p>“Mom, you took care of me for over 10 years. Right now, you’re the one who needs help, so I’m going to help you as much as I can.”</p><p>“That’s not your job Jack. You don’t have to worry about me, I’m not your responsibility.”</p><p>“Go back to sleep,” he said gently. She felt the drugs pull her under, still aware of the warmth of her son’s hand as she drifted off to sleep.</p><p>——</p><p>Holder walked into S.P.D. and headed down to his office to try to track down the evidence that had gone missing.</p><p>“Detective Holder!”</p><p>It was Carlson. Holder was really not in the mood to deal with his boss and tried to hide his displeasure as he responded, “Yeah lieu?”</p><p>“Come to my office for a moment?”</p><p>Holder pivoted and headed to his lieutenant’s office, Reddick was inside with Carlson who now stood behind his desk.</p><p>“What’s going on?” Holder asked a little apprehensive.</p><p>“Detective Holder, with Linden being out of commission well... we still have a murder case to solve,” said Carlson.</p><p>Holder held out his arms, “Yeah so?”</p><p>“Detective Reddick is going to be your temporary partner. For the rest of the case,” Reddick grimaced and nodded at him. “Take him to your office, go over the case with him. We have a killer to catch, someone who targeted a cop. Get to work.”</p><p>Holder walked to his office with Reddick right behind him.</p><p>“I’m not looking to replace Linden...” Reddick started to say.</p><p>“Nah ya not,” Holder said. “We have a case man, let’s just do the damn thing.” He looked up at the boards.</p><p>Linden’s hospital intake photos had been pinned to the bulletin board. Each injury blown up to a full 8x12 photo, her sunken face with a gash above her eyebrow, black eye and bruised cheek stood out in contrast to the hospital gown she wore, the deep red and bloody abrasions on her wrists from where she had pulled on the ropes trying to escape. Holder wheeled around on Reddick furious, “Did you do this?!”</p><p>“What? No!” Reddick said sharply. “I’ve never been in your office before!” He gave Holder a quizzical look, “You didn’t put it there?”</p><p>Holder looked back at the photos feeling sick. “No. No I didn’t.”</p><p>“I mean it’s part of the case right? So we need it to be up there…”</p><p>“No we don’t. We keep these pictures in a file. Take ‘em down, I’ve got a personal phone call to make. After you get the pictures down you can start reading up on the case, it’s all in here.”</p><p>Before Reddick could say anything else Holder was gone.</p><p>——</p><p>Jack was playing a game on his phone as his mom slept next to him in the hospital bed when his phone started to ring.</p><p>“Hey Holder.”</p><p>“<em>Hey little man. How’s your moms?</em>”</p><p>“She’s asleep, but she’s okay I think.”</p><p>“<em>Yeah?</em>”</p><p>“She woke up earlier, said she was in pain and cold. I called the nurse though, you know with the call button? Mom didn’t even notice, that concussion must suck. So the nurse gave her more pain meds and another blanket. She fell back asleep pretty fast after that.”</p><p>“<em>Little man lookin’ out for his moms,</em>” Holder grinned. “<em>Good job kid.</em>”</p><p>Jack grinned too, “Thanks.” He paused for moment, “Is everything okay? Have you caught the guy who did it?”</p><p>The detective’s face fell, “<em>Nah lil’ man. We don’t got him yet. I called ‘cause I needed to ask your moms something... but I’ll wait till she’s up later.</em>” He thought for a moment, “<em>Do me a favor?”</em></p><p>“What?”</p><p>“<em>Text me when she wakes up? And maybe... ya know just, don’t leave her side.</em>”</p><p>Jack nodded then remembered Holder couldn’t see him, “Okay, I will, I mean—I won’t. I won’t leave her.”</p><p>“<em>Good man. Aight I gotta go.</em>”</p><p>“Bye Holder.”</p><p>——</p><p>Holder walked back into the office. Reddick was writing in a little notebook while he looked up at the whiteboard. The pictures of Linden were no longer on the bulletin board.</p><p>“Thanks for your patience my man,” said Holder.</p><p>“Didn’t really give me much of a choice, did ya?”</p><p>“Nah, but you took it like a champ.” He sat in his chair and Reddick turned around to look at him.</p><p>“Look,” Reddick sighed. “I know this has gotta be tough on ya, your partner being abducted and attacked. If it were me I’d keep things close to the chest too. Be wary of people, suspicious and whatnot.”</p><p>“I feel a ‘but’ coming.”</p><p>“However,” Reddick emphasized.</p><p>“Oof you fancy!”</p><p>Reddick ignored the jibe, “However if we want to solve this thing, we’re gonna have to work together. Collaborate. Open communication, you got me?”</p><p>Holder spread his arms wide, “Yeah I feel you brotha, I’m an open book.”</p><p>“Good, now that we’ve got that established...” Reddick bent forward on Holder’s desk so they were almost face to face.</p><p>“Why did Detective Linden lie to me about seeing her abductor? And why are you helping her cover it up?”</p><p>——</p><p>Adams was off duty now. He watched Bruce Dole from a good distance away sitting in his car drinking a cup of coffee.</p><p>——</p><p>When Sarah woke up again, it felt as though she were on a cloud—if clouds were solid and not made out of water vapor. Ahead she saw the tv on, Jack was flipping through the channels. She tried to sit up and it doesn’t hurt nearly as badly as before, and the doctor chose that moment to walk in.</p><p>“Perfect timing!” The doctor said seeing she was awake, “How are you feeling Ms. Linden?”</p><p>Sarah turned to the doctor, “I’m alright, any chance I’ll go home today?”</p><p>The doctor picked up the clipboard at the end of the bed. “I’m afraid not,” he said. “I’m looking at the results from the blood test they took last night on your readmission; it looks like you have an abnormally high white blood cell count. I need to take a look at your arm—the gunshot wound. Your son is welcome to wait outside.”</p><p>“Uh okay... Jack, could you—?”</p><p>“I should stay mom,” Jack cut in, she gave him a strange look as though to say “<em>What the hell’s gotten into you?”</em> but understood when he added, “I promised Stephen I would.”</p><p>Sarah raised her eyebrows, then gave him a curt nod, “He can stay.”</p><p>At that the doctor looked bewildered, “Ms. Linden... I’m about to examine, what is most likely to be, an infected bullet wound.”</p><p>She glared and snapped back, “That’s what the curtain is for isn’t it?”</p><p>The doctor nodded after a moment, “Very well ma’am.” He drew the curtain shutting Jack out.</p><p>Jack took the opportunity to text Holder: <em>mom is awake</em>. A few minutes later he got a response saying: <em>b there soon</em>.</p><p>The curtain was drawn back open a few minutes later. Sarah looked paler than she did before the curtains were shut and Jack looked worried. She shook her head and gave him what she hoped came across as a comforting smile. In reality it was more of a grimace.</p><p>“I’m going to prescribe an antibiotic,” said the doctor. “We’ll re-evaluate tomorrow. If you need anything have a nurse page me.” He smiled and walked out of the room.</p><p>Sarah turned to her son, an eyebrow raised. “Stephen?”</p><p>Jack shrugged, “I told you I wasn’t leaving. Holder’s on his way, he wants to ask you something.”</p><p>She smirked, “I thought he was Stephen?” Jack rolled his eyes, and suddenly her face sobered, “You haven’t eaten anything, have you? Not since yesterday.”</p><p>“I’m fine.”</p><p>“Jack...”</p><p>“Really mom I’m not hungry,” he insisted. “Holder gave me a bag of Funyuns.”</p><p>Sarah’s one good arm rubbed over her face gently, “That’s not real food Jack.”</p><p>“Well it’s the best I'm going to get right now.” Jack insisted, his voice raising.</p><p>“Woah little man, people are trying to sleep.”</p><p>Sarah and Jack turned, Holder stood in the doorway, but he wasn’t alone.</p><p>“Reddick?” Sarah said quietly, she looked at Holder. She couldn’t help the feeling that over took her: betrayal. Holder had sold her out.</p><p>“Who’s he?” Jack asked in an accusatory tone, stepping in front of his mother’s bed.</p><p>Holder looked somewhat ashamed, “We were already on our way over,” he explained. “We gotta talk to your moms Jack. You have some headphones or somethin’ you can listen to?”</p><p>Jack looked at Sarah, she sighed and gave him a tiny nod. Frustrated, he went to his suitcase that was in the corner of of the room and pulled out a set of headphones, but then stopped mid-motion. “I’m not a kid anymore,” he said, so quietly that they could barely hear him. “You can’t hide this stuff from me forever,” he looked at his mom.</p><p>Sarah licked her lip and looked down thinking, she shook her head then immediately regretted it grabbing it with her right arm. “Fine... fine.”</p><p>“You sure Linden?” asked Holder.</p><p>“He’s right, he can’t leave our side—my side while this thing is going down. I can’t keep... can’t keep asking him to throw his head in the sand.” She’s already exhausted, even though she just woke up, and having the doctor examine her arm had hurt. A lot.</p><p>Sarah looked at Jack, “If it gets to be too much you can’t leave. You put on the headphones. Do you understand me?” Jack nodded seriously, and Sarah turned to Reddick, “Debrief again?”</p><p>Reddick nodded, he pulled a chair to the foot of her bed and sat down. Holder closed the door to the room and leaned against it. Reddick pulled out a recorder from his pocket and clicked it on placing it on the bed.</p><p>“Start at the beginning,” said Reddick</p><p>“Detective Holder and I, we talked to an employee of Pharmaceutical International Sales—the company that employed our victim. He told us that our suspect had had a conversation about clearing out some warehouses and getting it done quickly. We found out the location of the warehouses from another P.I.S. employee, she told us there were three of them—the warehouses. It was getting later in the day, so I said the best course of action would be to split up and take one location each before meeting at the third.”</p><p>“Why the rush?” asked Reddick, “If you were told the warehouses were empty why not wait to investigate the next day, together?”</p><p>Sarah clenched her jaw, spoke quietly, and looked down. “My son was flying in the next day. I wanted to be sure I could pick him up.”</p><p>A momentary awkward silence filled the room. Finally Reddick spoke again, “What happened next?”</p><p>“I got to my warehouse, left my radio in the car—”</p><p>“Why?”</p><p>She breathed deeply, “I had my phone. I stupidly thought I wouldn’t need the radio.” Sarah glared at him, “I went in the warehouse, cleared a few rooms... I didn’t find anything. My phone went off, it was Holder. He had cleared his warehouse and said he was headed to the next location. I told him I would be there soon. I hung up the phone and someone put a gun to the back of my head. He instructed me to drop my weapon, which I did. I disarmed him, we fought, he got the upper hand—”</p><p>“How?”</p><p>Sarah glared, “Does it really matter?”</p><p>“If I’m going to believe you, yes it does.”</p><p>She looked away, feeling extremely vulnerable and incredibly miffed. “He pulled my hair—my ponytail. Yanked me back towards him, put me in a chokehold. I forced him to let go of me again, drove my elbow into his stomach. I tried to dive for my piece, but he tackled me,” she breathed. “He had his full weight was on my body, I couldn’t get him off. I tried scratching, pushing... he grabbed my neck and slammed my head into the ground. It... it gets a little hazy. Um... he was tying something around my wrists. I tried doing—something I think to get back on my feet. He slammed my head into the ground again and I blacked out.”</p><p>She avoided everyone’s gaze, her eyes were swimming with tears but she refused to let them fall. Her teeth were clenching so hard together a sharp pain was shooting up her jaw. Holder’s fingers were digging into the palm of his hand, he looked over at Jack and saw him paler then he had ever seen him before. He should’ve made the kid put on the headphones.</p><p>“Do you need a break?” Reddick asked.</p><p>“Funny,” Sarah laughed coldly, “you’re the one making me go through this shit again.”</p><p>“You lied Detective.”</p><p>She glared at him, “Let’s just get this over with.”</p><p>Reddick shifted in his seat, “Alright. What happened next?”</p><p>“I woke up in the trunk of a car. I sawed through my binds with my badge and I escaped from the trunk. I ran and was shot and fell. He came over to where I was on the ground, I saw him clearly for the first time: he had brown hair, brown eyes and a chiseled jaw. Clean shaven. He forced me back into the car at gun point. We drove to a log cabin, he opened a door that led to a stair case... and told me...” Sarah looked up at Holder who gave her a small nod, then she turned to Reddick. “He told me he knew how to get away with it. I asked him how, and he told me he had handed me the crime scene photos from CSU the first day of our investigation. Then he kicked me down the staircase, I lost consciousness,” she swallowed. “When I woke up next I was tied up in the basement. He came down the stairs and sat with me. He told me his name was Patrick Adams, Officer Adams.</p><p>“Adams admitted to killing Stacey Abrams, he said he was going to get away with it, had enjoyed watching me and Holder run down dead leads. But he was annoyed we were always closing the office door; he wanted to know where we were in the investigation. He said it was time for Holder to solve the case, the evidence was going to lead to one of our suspects Bruce Dole. I asked why Dole, and Adams said Dole was a patsy, the car he had drove us in was rented in Dole’s name. My DNA and badge was in the trunk, and the evidence of the shooting in the forest—he had meant for me to escape the trunk. He had needed...” Sarah blew out a breath. “Adams had needed to leave an evidence trail for when my body would be found in the woods. I told him Holder would figure it out, he said if he did it wouldn’t matter because his father was Lieutenant Carlson and no one would believe Holder. He proceeded to ask about the case. I refused to answer.<br/>“Adams threatened my son, knew he lived in Chicago. He gave me time to “mull it over” but he left my phone on the floor in his jacket a few feet away. I pulled on the ropes until I could reach the phone. I turned it on and tried to call 911. Adams came back down, threw my phone against the wall and pistol whipped me. The next day he still asked me about the investigation I still refused to answer, shortly after Holder arrived. I knew I had to do something to let him know I was down there—so I provoked Adams until he became angry and violent. He made enough noise, Holder came downstairs, there was a shootout and Adams escaped,” she nodded. “That’s it. That’s everything.”</p><p>Reddick nodded, “The evidence from the cabin?”</p><p>“Mysteriously gone missing,” said Holder. “Linden told me Adams knew about Jack, and he called me at the hospital, said he was at the airport waitin’ for his moms, so I went to get him. I asked CSU to take it straight to our office, they said an officer came by claiming to have been sent by me.”</p><p>Sarah pierced Reddick with her gaze, “So... what are you going to do?”</p><p>The older detective stared at her, his leg bouncing restlessly, Jack’s face was unreadable, Holder looked murderous.</p><p>“Corrupt cop? Son of a lieutenant?” Reddick said.</p><p>——</p><p>Trina Velasquez left the boutique. She started to walk down the sidewalk texting on her phone. She dropped her keys and bent down to pick them up. When she stood up Adams was in front of her her.</p><p>“Geez! You scared me!”</p><p>“Yeah?” Adams asked smiling, putting his arms around her waist. “I like surprising you.”</p><p>“Obviously,” She said smiling. Their lips met.</p><p>——</p><p>Bruce Dole stood in the P.I.S, offices; they were completely bare. He flipped off the light.</p><p>——</p><p>The hospital room was tense, awaiting Reddick’s decision.</p><p>“Guess I should help you nail this son of a bitch.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Day 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>September 10, 2013<br/>Day 7</p><p>“You got everything?” Sarah asked Jack, “Holder’s waiting for us outside.”</p><p>“Yep,” Jack said holding his suitcase.</p><p>She nodded and they left the hospital room. A nurse directed her to the first floor for the check out counter.</p><p>“Here are your prescriptions,” a bubbly nurse said handing her a brown bag. “Be sure to take them—prescribed as needed. Any questions and you can call our pharmacists. Can I do anything else for you?”</p><p>“Nope, I should be good.” Linden said.</p><p>“Okay then, you’re all set!”</p><p>Linden nodded and she and Jack headed for the exit.</p><p>Holder had waited right outside, the Linden’s saw his leaning on his car and smoking a cigarette. When he saw them come out, he put out the smoke and opened the trunk.</p><p>“Let me get that for ya lil’ man,” he said to Jack and took the suitcase placing it in the trunk. “Need help Linden?”</p><p>“I should be good,” Sarah said as she got into the passenger seat stiffly.</p><p>Jack got in the back and Holder got behind the wheel and they drove away. They had been driving for less then a minute when Holder said, “My dojo is all set up and ready to go. I brought some stuff over from your place Linden, so you should be all set.”</p><p>“Thanks Holder, you didn’t have to do that though.”</p><p>“Pretty sure I do,” Holder grinned. “Only reason they discharged you was because we told ‘em you’d have adult supervision ‘cause of that concussion.”</p><p>“You sure the reason isn’t you want to keep an eye on us?” she asked.</p><p>“...could be both,” he muttered with a shrug. “Either way, I get to host the Linden family! Should be fun, right?”</p><p>She let a small smile grace her lips, and looked back at Jack. He was looking out the window, with an expression on his face that she couldn’t quite read.</p><p>——</p><p>At the station Reddick worked on a computer in Holder and Linden’s office, looking at the stations file on Patrick Adams a.k.a. Patrick Carlson. He couldn’t request a physical file because then there would be a record of the request. Only deep in the file, in a side note does he find something that reads “Son of Lt. Erik Carlson”.</p><p>The office door is closed, and so are the blinds.</p><p>——</p><p>Holder carried Jack’s suitcase into his apartment, Jack carried his mom’s suitcase, and Sarah held the bag of prescriptions.</p><p>“Alright Linden family,” said Holder. “You’ve been here before, you know where everything is. Call me if ya need me, I gotta go to work.”</p><p>“I really appreciate it Holder,” Sarah said sincerely. “Thank-you for doing this.”</p><p>Holder just smiled at her, “I’ll see you tonight! Bye little man.”</p><p>Holder and Jack slapped hands and then saluted each other and then Holder headed out. Jack locked the door behind him.</p><p>——</p><p>Reddick took pictures of the boards, close ups and wide shots. He took them from all sorts of different angles, making sure to get all of the pictures and information that is on them.</p><p>——</p><p>Sarah sat on the couch with Jack playing a game of UNO. Jack was looking at his cards intently, he hadn’t spoken much since yesterday and Sarah worried about what he had heard and how it affected him. Holder had told her how Jack looked during the debrief, he had even offered to speak with him but she said she would take care of it.</p><p>“Are you okay?” She asked. Jack shrugged, and nodded before putting down a card. “Listen I know yesterday... that was probably really uncomfortable to listen to. Do you want to ask me anything?”</p><p>“Your turn,” he said. Sarah looked at her cards. Jack waited for a moment and then said, “How are you okay?”</p><p>She looked up at him, “What do you mean?”</p><p>“Yesterday, when you were talking about what happened. That was... a lot. I mean... he did...” Jack looked at her, and Sarah was reminded of how young he truly was, and what she had now exposed him to. “How are you okay? I mean, honestly.”</p><p>Sarah looked down at her cards, willing herself not to become emotional. “If I’m being honest... I’m not,” she looked back up at him. “But I can’t let it get to me, I can’t let it control my life. I have to move on. So... I’ll work through it.”</p><p>“How?”</p><p>She gave him a small smile, “Seeing and being with you is helping, and Holder is helping. He believes me, he’s helping to keep me—to keep us safe. And now Reddick believes me too,” her lips parted as she took a small breath. “Knowing people have your back, that... that helps. A lot.”</p><p>Jack waited another moment, “I don’t know what I’d do do if something happened to you. You... you could have died. You almost died.”</p><p>“Hey,” Sarah put down her cards and reached for his hands. Jack scooted over to be closer to her his own cards forgotten, and gently leaned on her. She wrapped her right arm around him, “I’m alive, I’m okay.”</p><p>“For the most part,” he muttered.</p><p>She huffed out a laugh, “Yeah... for the most part. But I will be okay.”</p><p>They stayed together on the couch like that for a while longer before she sighed and sat up, “C’mon, you’re kicking my butt at this. I have to redeem myself.”</p><p>Jack laughed going back over to his cards, “No way that’s going to happen.”</p><p>“Oh, is that a challenge?”</p><p>“C’mon mom, it’s your turn.”</p><p>——</p><p>Reddick walked outside of the station carrying a thick folder. Holder pulled up to the curb.</p><p>“Did you get it all?” Holder asked him.</p><p>“Got it right here.” Reddick said.</p><p>“Alrighty, lets go playa.”</p><p>“Don’t call me that.” Reddick said as he opened the passenger door and got inside.</p><p>——</p><p>Adams went to punch out at work with another cop. He noticed that Linden and Holder’s office light was turned off.</p><p>“Think they’ve given up?” Adams jabbed casually to the other cop.</p><p>“Doubt it. Remember the Rosie Larsen case? Brass kicked both of them off the case, and they still solved it.”</p><p>Adams gave a noncommittal grunt and turned away, his expression becoming dark.</p><p>——</p><p><br/>A knock on Holder’s door interrupted the card game. Jack looked at his mom, Sarah stood up slowly, and there was another knock. She went to the kitchen and took a knife from the drawer. “Stay where you are Jack,” she said quietly, dangerously. Jack hesitated, and she could see in his eyes he wanted to move, to help. “I mean it Jack, stay right there!” He reluctantly nodded and she went to the door and looked out of the eye hole.</p><p>“Yo Linden, you really gonna make me take out my keys?” Holder’s voice came through the door.</p><p>Sarah closed her eyes, washed with relief. She tucked the knife under her arm and turned the lock and doorknob retrieving the knife.</p><p>Holder, and to her surprise Reddick, both came into the apartment.</p><p>“Damn Linden, why you tryna stab Reddick?” Holder smirked.</p><p>She put the knife down, “I don’t have my gun. Sorry.”</p><p>Reddick waved off her apology and held out a thick folder.</p><p>“Thought you’d be happy to see me,” Holder said,. “I came baring gifts.”</p><p>“Hey!” Reddick cried indignantly.</p><p>Holder shrugged his shoulders, “Alright, he comes baring gifts.”</p><p>Reddick handed her the folder, she balanced it on the sling and her chest and opened it. She couldn’t believe what she saw. “Is this...?”</p><p>“Pictures of the bulletin board and whiteboard? Copies of the reports? Basically everything from our office—available mobile-y?” Holder said with a swagger, his hands in his pockets, and rocking on the balls of his feet, “Why yes it is. Oh! Also a burner phone, just until y’a know, you get a new one.”</p><p>Linden looked back at Jack, thinking of the conversation they had just had. Thinking of the time they have left together this week. She turned to her partner, “Holder...”</p><p>“I already cleared it with Little Man.” he said as though he knew exactly what she was thinking, “Actually... it was his idea.”</p><p>Linden whirled on her son, Jack nodded and gave her a serious look, “If there’s any case you need to work, it’s this one. You’re the one most capable of solving it.”</p><p>“I take offense to that,” said Reddick.</p><p>Holder turned on him and stage whispered, “Yo man, shut up!” The older detective raised his hands in surrender. Sarah was speechless, Holder turned back to her, “You can use the walls, hang things up, Jack knows where the tape is. Don’t hurt yourself though, that’s the only rule in this dojo.”</p><p>She nodded, looking at the papers.</p><p>“Alright chief,” Reddick said to Holder. “We should get back.” He turned to Linden, “Call if you get anything.”</p><p>“I will,” Sarah nodded at the other two detectives.</p><p>Jack walked over to his mom with three rolls of duct tape, “Tell me where you want stuff to go.”</p><p>——</p><p>Adams and Trina walked hand in hand down the street, she looked disappointed.</p><p>“I’ll make it up to you. I promise.”</p><p>“Oh yeah?” She smiled.</p><p>“Oh yeah.”</p><p>——</p><p>“Yo Graham!”</p><p>Holder stood outside a building where NA meetings were held. Reddick was hanging back in the car.</p><p>“Stephen,” said Graham. “Been a few days since I’ve seen you here.”</p><p>“Yeah, been dealing with some shit ya know?”</p><p>Graham nodded solemnly, “I saw on the news about Detective Linden. Is she going to be okay?”</p><p>Holder nodded, “Yeah she’s gonna be fine man thanks,” he shifted his feet. “I actually was hoping I could ask you some more questions about Stacey?” Graham looked at the people heading into the meeting, “Won’t take too long, I promise you. And if it does I can give you the names of a few other meetings you can hit up. ‘Kay?”</p><p>Graham turned back to him, “Okay.”</p><p>They walked over to the car that Reddick was sitting in. Graham got in the backseat, and Holder slid into the passenger seat up front.</p><p>“Who’s this?” Graham asked motioning to Reddick.</p><p>“This is Detective Reddick, he’s my temporary partner. Reddick, this is Devonte Graham. He was really close with our vic,” Reddick nodded to acknowledge him. “Graham, main thing we gotta ask, did you know Stacey worked at a boutique called Daphne’s?”</p><p>“I thought she had quit,” said Graham. “She got the new job so she could. Stacey hated it there, at the boutique I mean, she absolutely hated it.”</p><p>“Why’d she hate it?” asked Holder, his forehead scrunched.</p><p>“The manager, she was a complete and total bitch, treated Stacey like shit.”</p><p>“No kidding,” Holder said looking at Reddick. “That’s...actually all we need, thanks man. We really appreciate it, you can go.”</p><p>“Alright,” Graham opened the door to leave then stopped. “Stephen... do you think I could get those other meetings? Ya know, just to have them?”</p><p>Holder’s face softened, “Sure man, give me your digits I’ll send ‘em.”</p><p>Graham gave Holder his number, thanked him, and went over to the meeting. When Graham was gone Holder turned to Reddick.</p><p>“We gotta get to that boutique. Now.”</p><p>“Buckle up,” Reddick said starting the car.</p><p>——</p><p>Back at Holder’s apartment Jack and Linden had created a demented sort of collage of photos to make it look somewhat like the boards in the police station. Now Jack was on the couch playing with his phone and Sarah had a chair in front of the collage looking down at her copy of the case file.</p><p>She flipped through the file before she landed on the analysis from CSU about the make up. “Why put the make up on her...” she thought out loud, not for the first time. “There has to be some significance with the makeup.” Sarah looked up at the board, and stood up slowly staring into Stacey’s face; the perfect lipstick, eyeliner, mascara, and shadow. Her phone buzzed and she put down the file and looked at the phone to see that Holder was calling.</p><p>“<em>Trina treated Stacey like shit,</em>” Holder said without preamble, “<em>just talked to Graham, he said Stacey wanted to leave the boutique ‘cause of it.</em>”</p><p>“That’s why she was so excited about the job at P.I.S.” Sarah nodded. “More money, but also...”</p><p>“<em>No bitch manager.</em>”</p><p>“You’re going to the boutique?”</p><p>“<em>We are on our way now.</em>”</p><p>“Alright, let me know what you find out.”</p><p>“<em>Will, do.</em>”</p><p>They both hung up.</p><p>“What’s the connection...?” she murmured. Trina hated Stacey...</p><p>Instantaneously, she flash backed to the cabin basement: tied to the wooden beam, unable to go anywhere else she had leaned against it to stop her head from bleeding, when she’d heard the seemingly one-sided conversation Adams had been having.</p><p>“<em>I’ll see you soon. Yeah, probably tonight. Have to wrap up here first. Yeah, I’m taking care of it. Yeah. Love you too.</em>”</p><p>Click, boom.</p><p>“Oh my god,” Linden grabbed the burner phone and dialed. “Pick up, pick up...”</p><p>“<em>Yo it’s me. Leave a message.</em>”</p><p>“Dammit!” She closed the phone, frustrated.</p><p>“Mom?” Sarah turned to Jack, he was looking up at her over his phone, “What’s going on?”</p><p>Breathing shakily she said, “I figured it out.”</p><p>——</p><p>Holder and Reddick pulled up to the boutique. They both got out of the car, headed for the front, went inside, and saw a male employee.</p><p>“S.P.D. we’re looking for Trina Vasquez.” Holder said as he and Reddick showed their shields.</p><p>“She’s not in today. She’ll be back tomorrow.”</p><p>“Alright,” said Reddick. “What’s your name?”</p><p>“Ryan.”</p><p>“Okay Ryan, do you know anything about the relationship she had with Stacey Adams?”</p><p>“Relationship? If it was a relationship it was hella abusive. The bitch hated her.” Ryan laughed.</p><p>Reddick raised his finger and thought for a moment, “Which one is the bitch?”</p><p>Ryan raised his eyebrows and put a hand on his hip, “I’ll give you a hint, her name rhymes with Sabrina.”</p><p>“Alright chill with the sassiness, my partner can’t handle it in his old age,” said Holder. “Is there anything else you can tell us about your manager?”</p><p>Ryan threw back his head and laughed again, “I’d like to keep my job so I’ll have to pass on the question.”</p><p>Reddick clenched his jaw and nodded, “Thanks for your help.” He and Holder turned for the door. “We can look up Trina’s address and head over there. Maybe she’s at home.”</p><p>Holder pulled out his phone, “I’ll take care of it.”</p><p>——</p><p>Jack walked up to his mother. “What is it?”</p><p>“There had to be a reason for the makeup, there’s no way Adams would come up with that on his own,” she looked up at the board, her fingers at her lips. “He couldn’t, he’s a brute, no finesse. Adams wanted to know where we were in the investigation... that’s why he targeted one of us. He wanted to know because we went to the boutique for a second time... he needed to make sure we didn’t have anything on her. Because they did it together.”</p><p>——</p><p><br/>Adams handed the box of evidence to Trina.</p><p>“Told you I would make it up to you.”</p><p>Trina grinned and took the box inside her bedroom.<br/> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Day 7 (continued)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“He’s still not answering,” Sarah pressed the phone ending the call for the umpteenth time.</p><p>“Is Holder in trouble?” asked Jack.</p><p>She looked over at Jack and stumbled over her words, “I’m sure he’s fine, Reddick’s with him. He’ll be fine, but he needs to know.”</p><p>“If he doesn’t answer, what’ll you do?”</p><p>Linden didn’t answer, her gaze wandered and became distant, she placed the phone against her chin.</p><p>——</p><p>Holder and Reddick came out of the elevator and walked down a wide apartment hallway.</p><p>“Her’s is the one at the end,” said Holder. “4C.”</p><p>“Alright,” Reddick replied, they get to the end of the hall and he knocked on the door. “Seattle P.D.”</p><p>They heard the sound of a chain lock being undone, and then the door opened, “Yes?” said Trina.</p><p>The detectives showed their badges. “Ms. Vasquez, I’m Detective Reddick, I believe you’ve already met Detective Holder.”</p><p>“Oh! Yeah I remember,” she smiled brightly.</p><p>“We just needed to ask you a few more questions,” Reddick continued. “About Stacey?”</p><p>“Sure. Whatever I can do to help.”</p><p>At that moment Holder’s phone rang, “Excuse me,” he stepped away. “Linden? I’m kind of in the middle of somethin’ here.”</p><p>“<em>Holder, they did it together.</em>”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“<em>Trina and Adams—they killed Stacey together.</em>”</p><p>Holder looked up at Trina briefly, she was still conversing with Reddick. He turned away and walked further down the hall. “What the hell are you talkin’ ‘bout?”</p><p>“<em>The makeup. There’s no way Adams could pull that off, he wouldn’t know the first thing about stuff like that. We know who his father is—he wouldn’t know anything about that kind of thing. You think Carlson would let a son of his know a single thing about something so feminine?</em>”</p><p>“So? He could’ve done some research—”</p><p>“<em>No, listen! At the cabin, in the basement...</em>” Linden breathed deeply but still talked quickly, “<em>he was on the phone, talking to someone, someone who knew what he was doing. He said he was “taking care of it”.</em>”</p><p>“‘It’ being you in the basement?”</p><p>“<em>Presumably, yes. And you just told me, Trina hated Stacey. So both of them got something out of it: Adams teams up with his girlfriend to take care of her problem, emerges victorious when he solves the case with evidence that leads to Bruce Dole. But then he couldn’t figure out where we were in the investigation—if we have anything on him or more importantly—Trina. We must have spooked them when we talked to her at the boutique.</em>”</p><p>Holder suddenly recalled how angry Trina had been, then how she had collapsed into tears. “She went from hot to cold real quick at the store.”</p><p>“<em>She’s a psychopath.</em>”</p><p>“They both are.” said Holder, then after a beat of silence, “Linden...”</p><p>“<em>What?</em>”</p><p>“We’re with her right now. At her place”</p><p>Sarah felt her breath catch in her throat, “<em>Don’t let her know you know.</em>” she said calmly, “<em>I’ll call for backup.</em>”</p><p>“Everything okay Detective?” Trina called from down the hall.</p><p>Holder slipped his phone into his pocket, without hanging up and said as casually as he could, “Yeah everything’s fine. Didn’t mean to be rude. Had to talk to my moms.”</p><p>“Just wanted to make sure you were alright,” Trina said with an unnerving smile.</p><p>Holder nodded and puts his hands in his pockets. “Do ya think we could take this inside maybe?”</p><p>Trina’s smile faltered, but just barely. “I’m sure that’s not necessary.”</p><p>“It’s a bit drafty standing out here in the hallway though innit? Unless there’s something you don’t want us to see?”</p><p>——</p><p>Linden listened over the phone, Holder had kept the line open.</p><p>“Jack, I need to borrow your phone.” Jack passed it over without arguing, she dialed quickly. “This is Detective Linden badge number 903, I need backup at...” she hadn’t looked up the address. “Dammit!”</p><p>“<em>Detective?</em>” Came the voice of the dispatcher.</p><p>“Hang on!” Linden scrambled for the file and looked for Trina’s DMV info, “Backup at 99 Park Rd. Apt. 4C,” she said breathily, god her head hurt. “Officers need backup they’re at the address of a murder suspect. They need backup now,” she emphasized.</p><p>“<em>Dispatching officers now.</em>”</p><p>Sarah put the burner phone back to her ear.</p><p>“...<em>is there something you don’t want us to see?</em>”</p><p>——</p><p>“You can’t come in,” Trina said hotly.</p><p>Holder nodded, “Alright, how about we take this conversation down to the station?”</p><p>“Sure thing,” Trina glared at him. “Your backup should be here soon anyway.” She looked at Reddick, “You know that right? Or is that news to you?”</p><p>“You going to come quietly, or ya gonna keep jabbin’ off?”</p><p>A tense moment followed where the two detectives waited to see what she would do.</p><p>——</p><p>“All good?” Jack asked.</p><p>Sarah nodded, “Yep,” she sat down on the couch. “My head is killing me.”</p><p>——</p><p>Adams walked down the hallway of the station holding a file, his hat was titled down so his face was not completely visible. Ahead he saw Trina being walked down the hall and into interrogation by Reddick and Holder. He looked up just in time so that he and Trina locked eye contact and he saw her nod at him. He waited until the three of them were out of sight, then he closed the file and briskly walked down the hall to the front of the station.</p><p>——</p><p>“So they’ve arrested her?” asked Jack.</p><p>“No, they don’t have any clear evidence to take her in yet. But she acted suspicious... she wouldn’t let them into her apartment, so they’ll bring her in for questioning. If we can get her to admit that she’s in a relationship with Adams, we might be able to build a case from there.”</p><p>“Why don’t you think she let them inside?”</p><p>Sarah paused a moment thinking, “I’m not sure.”</p><p>Later, Linden would blame her concussion for not putting one and one together.</p><p>——</p><p>Trina sat in Interrogation 1. Holder and Reddick stood behind the two-way mirror.</p><p>“You ready for this?” Reddick asked. Holder nodded and they headed into the room, each taking a seat opposite of Trina.</p><p>“So Trina,” Reddick started. “We feel that maybe you weren’t being honest with us back at your place.”</p><p>Trina arched an eyebrow, “Oh?”</p><p>“Do you maybe, want to revise some of what you said?”</p><p>Trina made a face as though she was thinking really hard, “Nope. I’ll stick with what I gave you.” She turned to Holder, “How’s your partner Detective Holder? Your real partner.” Holder felt the color drain from his face; only to be replaced by white hot fury. “It’s a real shame what happened to her. But it was really nice of you to pick up her son at the airport when she was indisposed.”</p><p>Holder stood up from his chair so fast it clattered to the ground, Reddick stood up and grabbed a hold of his jacket.</p><p>“How the fuck do you know about that?!” Holder asked in a threatening tone.</p><p>Trina just smiled, “I’m not sure. Can’t remember.”</p><p>——</p><p>Adams passed Ray by the front desk.</p><p>Looking up briefly from the report he had been reading, Ray say Adams leaving, “Headed out?”</p><p>“Yeah I’m done for the day,” said Adams.</p><p>The tech nodded, “See you tomorrow.”</p><p>“Yeah, you too,” and Adams left the station.</p><p>——</p><p>“Mom?”</p><p>“Yeah?” Sarah snapped out of her thoughts.</p><p>“Why don’t you think she let them inside her place?”</p><p>“I...” her brain was spinning, she felt as though she had run a mile. “I have to make a call,” Sarah pulled out her phone.</p><p>——</p><p>Reddick tilted his head, “You’re a right little psychopath aren’t ya?”</p><p>Trina just smiled, “I am this close.” She put two of her fingers close together, “to asking for a lawyer. Then you guys are really screwed, huh?”</p><p>Holder leaned against the mirror with his arms crossed, glaring at her.</p><p>——</p><p>Ray’s desk phone began to ring, he picked it up and answered, “Hello?”</p><p>“<em>Ray, it’s Linden.</em>”</p><p>“Detective Linden! How—?”</p><p>“<em>I’m sorry Ray I have to ask you something, is Officer Patrick Adams working?</em>”</p><p>“Adams? He just left.”</p><p>“<em>Just now?</em>”</p><p>“Yeah.”</p><p>“<em>Right, thanks.</em>”</p><p>Sarah hung up the phone, and stood up, “Jack, I have to go.”</p><p>“I really hope you’re joking,” Jack said standing too.</p><p>“No, no I have to go.”</p><p>“Where?!”</p><p>Sarah tried to put on her jacket to no avail because of the sling and threw it aside. “The evidence from the cabin... it’s at her apartment. But Adams knows and he’s going to move it or destroy it.”</p><p>“So send Holder!” Jack cried.</p><p>“Sweetie, he’s in interrogation, and he doesn’t have his phone, it’ll be too late. Keep calling him though, if he picks up tell him what I’m doing.”</p><p>“How are you gonna get there?”</p><p>“I’ll call a cab.”</p><p>“You don’t even have your gun!”</p><p>“Jack,” Sarah went over to him and put her hand under his chin. “I have to do this,” she kissed his forehead and went to the door throwing it open. “Lock the door behind me, keep trying to call Holder!” Then she was gone.</p><p>Jack picked up his own phone and dialed frantically.</p><p>——</p><p>“What didn’t you want us to see in your apartment?” asked Reddick, “What are you hiding?”</p><p>“Who said I was hiding anything?” Trina said innocently. “For all you know I could have just been protecting my rights. Or did you want to see my panties drawer?”</p><p>Reddick opened his mouth to respond when there was a knock on the door and an officer stuck his head in the room, “I’m so sorry to intrude, but Jack Linden called the station for you Detective Holder, he says it’s an emergency.”</p><p>Holder looked to Reddick who nodded his assent. Holder bolted from the room.</p><p>“Your office phone,” the officer said.</p><p>“Yeah man thanks,” Holder ran to the office and picked up the phone. “Yo little man, you alright?”</p><p>“<em>It’s mom,</em>” came Jack’s frantic voice. “<em>She figured out the evidence was being stored at that ladies apartment, and found out that the cop went to go get rid of it.</em>”</p><p>“Woah woah slow down.”</p><p>“<em>She’s gone Holder! She told me to keep trying your cell but I thought it would be too late.</em>”</p><p>“She’s gone? Gone where?”</p><p>“<em>To the ladies apartment, mom figured out the evidence is there. But the cop—Adams, right?—He just left the station and is headed there too. She doesn’t have a gun or anything!</em>”</p><p>Linden never made things easy. “Alright little man, chill. I’m on it. Stay whe—”</p><p>“<em>Stay where I am, yeah I got it.</em>”</p><p>Holder returned the phone to the receiver and grabbed his cell phone and keys off of his desk before he ran back to interrogation.</p><p>“I gotta go,” he told Reddick. “Keep her here! Don’t let her leave!” Then he was gone.</p><p>——</p><p>A cab pulled up outside of the apartments on Park Road. Linden stepped out without thanking the driver, and ran as fast as she could into the apartment building heading straight for the elevator. She pressed the up button and the doors opened, quickly stepping inside she pushed the button for the fourth floor.</p><p>——</p><p>Adams pulled up outside of the apartment building. He went to the elevator and pressed the button but the doors wouldn’t open so he ran to the stairs.</p><p>——</p><p>On the fourth floor Linden had placed herself around the corner from Trina’s apartment. If Adams was already inside, she would confront him as he came out. If he came out of the elevator, she would wait until he had gone inside and then would slip in behind him. She hadn’t had time to case where the stairwell was.</p><p>“Well, what a surprise.”</p><p>Dammit. Linden turned around to find herself face to face with Adams.</p><p>“Officer Adams,” she said disdainfully. “Fancy seeing you here.”</p><p>Sarah felt more annoyed then anything else, she’d much rather have been the one to surprise him, it was just her luck it was the other way around.</p><p>“How are you doing?” he said edging closer. “That arm doesn’t look too good.”</p><p>Sarah glared at him, “Just fine. What about you? How’s your girlfriend?”</p><p>Adams’ eye twitched. They were face to face now. “Let’s take this conversation inside shall we?” He put an arm around her, “Just two friends, going into an apartment.” They walked down to the door and he pulled out a key from his pocket using it to open the door and they stepped inside.</p><p>——</p><p>Holder pulled up to the apartment building, the tires of his car screeching to a halt. He couldn’t remember a time he had ever driven so fast in his life. Getting out of the car he withdrew his Glock and ran inside the building.</p><p>——</p><p>The apartment was tastefully decorated and very tidy. A small hall with a closet door led to a living room with a kitchen around and to the right, and there were three doors on the left wall. As Linden was looking at her surroundings she felt a gun pressed into her back.</p><p>“Get on the couch,” Adams ordered with a growl.</p><p>She walked forward and took a seat on the small red sofa in the living room. Adams moved and stood in front of her with the gun pointed straight at her heart.</p><p>“Where is it?” Linden asked with her face set in a scowl.</p><p>Adams pulled an innocent face, “Where’s what?”</p><p>“Don’t bullshit me, where’s the evidence?”</p><p>“Ohhh,” he shrugged nonchalantly.</p><p>——</p><p>Holder opted to run to the stairwell. He swung the door open with such force that it slammed against the wall with a bang. He ran up the stairs taking them two at a time.</p><p>——</p><p>Adams looked around nonchalantly, “It’s around here somewhere. I think she put it in her bedroom. She was really disappointed when she heard you got away—I mean you threw a wrench into months of planning. But let me tell you, she loved getting her hands on that evidence.”</p><p>“You two make quite a pair,” Linden deadpanned unamused.</p><p>Adams face split into an unpleasant smile, “That we do.”</p><p>——</p><p>Holder walked down the hallway with purpose going to Trina’s apartment, his weapon raised, he could hear voices behind the door.</p><p>——</p><p>“So now what?”</p><p>Adams clicked his tongue, “You know what... I’m going to have to think this through for a minute. I can’t kill you here. I don’t have a way of tying Dole back to this place. I could always take you back to the woods, but I’d bet my money that you told your son where you were going, and you told him to tell Holder.” He squinted, “I could always take care of you, then take care of Jack though. Cut off each thread so to speak.”</p><p>——</p><p>Holder just had to wait for the right moment. He slowly turned the door handle, and found it was unlocked.</p><p>——</p><p>The anger boiled in the pit of Sarah’s stomach again. She spoke each word with a force that only a mother could convey, “You. Will. Not. Touch. Him.”</p><p>“Oh Sarah,” Adams smiled amused by her anger. “We’ve been through this. You, don’t have a—”</p><p>CRAM-CRASH!</p><p>Holder kicked down the door and had his gun trained on Adams.</p><p>Adams in his shock, had lowered his gun to the side. Sarah jumped to her feet, and kicked his gun out of his hand. The weapon went flying out of his before Adams could comprehend what had happened. Sarah raised her foot and used her heel to stomp on the inside of Adams’ knee displacing it, and sending him to his other knee with a cry of pain. Turning her right hand flat she struck him in the back of the neck and he fell flat to the ground. She had raised her hand to deliver another blow when Holder gently placed his hand onto her shoulder and spoke softly, “Alright Linden.”</p><p>Breathing heavily Sarah stepped back as Holder bent over and took out his handcuffs pulling Adams’ hands behind his back. “Bet your daddy can’t wait to see you,” he looked up to see Linden was gone.</p><p>“Linden?”</p><p>“Just a sec!” Her voice came from an open door and she walked back into the living room with the evidence box, “I got it.”</p><p>“I’ll call it in on the way over, you good?”</p><p>Linden gave a small nod, “Yeah... I’m good.”</p><p>Adams was mutinous, Holder pulled him up and began to read him his rights.</p><p>——</p><p>Trina sat in Interrogation 1 alone, her arms crossed. Next door in Interrogation 2 Adams sat with his hands cuffed to the table, across from Reddick.</p><p>Sarah and Holder stood behind the two-way mirror looking at Adams. Holder turned to his partner, “You sure you wanna do this?”</p><p>Linden looked at him briefly, then without answering walked out of the room and into interrogation, Holder followed close behind. Reddick stood up from the table as they walked in, he gave Holder a curt nod before he walked out of the room. Linden sat across from Adams, Holder leaned against the mirror with his arms crossed. Linden and Adams stared at each other for a few silent moments.</p><p>“I guess this is it,” said Adams, almost patronizingly. “Here for my confession?”</p><p>Linden shrugged as much as her body would allow, “At this point I really don’t need your confession,” she said simply. “But I thought maybe you’d want to share your side of the story.”</p><p>Adams huffed and shifted in his seat, the handcuff metal clacking together. He took a deep breath, “You were right. What you said in the basement? About my father?” Adams turned his head from side to side, “All I ever wanted to do was impress him. He makes you feel that way, you know? Want to be a high achiever. Do better, be better. I turned to narco... tried to escape the reality that I’d never get in daddy’s good graces. I became a cop to try to do that. Heh... didn’t work,” he shifted again. “I tried to let some of it go. To move on, live my own life. Thought I was doing pretty good.</p><p>“Then I meet this girl,” a smile creeped onto his face. “This wonderful girl, and I fall hard. Forgot any daddy issues I ever had. I got clean, no more tweaking for me, I had someone I could rely on now. But then one day she comes home from work, and talks about a new employee, how she can’t stand her. It gets worse and worse every day—one day she wonders...what if she wasn’t a problem anymore? And suddenly, I realize... I’m a cop right? I could make this happen, I could SOLVE what would happen. A patrol cop, solve a murder?” Adams grinned and tilted his head, “That’s a definite way to get on the Brass’ good side.</p><p>“So we started to plan. I heard from some of my old drug buddies about this company, hiring junkies... paying them under the table, it didn’t take long to put two and two together. I approached Bruce Dole as an ally, told him I could help him get things done... quietly. For a small fee of course. He blew me off at first, said he ran a legitimate business, he wouldn’t need anything to be taken care of.”</p><p>Adams leaned back, taking a breath, “So we did the deed, did it together. She was very adamant about putting the makeup on her face... I tried talking her out of it but I couldn’t. I stopped the CSU file on the analysis getting to your office once, but... you started your investigation, spooked Dole like I knew you would and he called me asking, begging for help, so I did. “Cleared out” his warehouses, he asked me to burn the product but I held on to enough to plant as evidence. I kept checking in on his whereabouts so he wouldn’t bolt.” He shook his head, his fingers clenched, “But then you went to the boutique. Not once... but twice. We had to know why, I had to be sure you didn’t have anything on her. I knew you’d find out about the warehouses, we talked it over... said we’d grab one of you. Didn’t matter which one, you both had leverages to exploit. The plan was foolproof... my fault for fucking it up I guess. Last bit of fun I had was spooking it our partner by putting the intake photos in your office.” Adams looked up at Linden, “You got damn lucky.”</p><p>“How’d Trina find out Jack Linden was flying in from Chicago?” Holder demanded.</p><p>Adams tilted his head innocently, “Who’s Trina?”</p><p>Holder’s eyebrows furrowed, “The girl you been talkin’ ‘bout.”</p><p>Sarah shut her eyes, and looked down understanding.</p><p>Adams shook his head, “I don’t recall ever saying anything about someone named Trina.”</p><p>——</p><p>Holder and Linden stood in front of Lieutenant Carlson’s desk, who was holding his head in his hands. Slowly he looked up, “Why didn’t you say anything?”</p><p>“Sir—” Holder started to say.</p><p>Carlson held up a hand, “Not you.” He pointed at Linden, “You.”</p><p>“You wouldn’t believe me,” she said simply. “You can sit there, and tell me you would have, but that would be a lie. I told you the truth on the Rosie Larsen case, and it landed me in the Psychiatric Ward. Telling you your son was a murderer? A psychopath? How could I?”</p><p>Carlson mulled over her words and then shook his head. He sat up straight and sighed, “Mr. Abrams sends his thanks, Stacey’s uncle? He came by just a while ago, but didn’t want to stay. Just wanted to say thanks. Unfortunately, Bruce Dole is still in the wind, as I understand he was selling watered down prescription drugs and was paying hookers and addicts under the table as his sales reps.”</p><p>“That was who Stacey met,” Linden’s head inclined. “Who she was so happy about meeting. Her uncle told us the last time he saw her, she was happy and she said she had met someone. She had met Dole and was happy because she was going to start a new job and leave the boutique.”</p><p>“We all know how that turned out,” Holder muttered.</p><p>“What about Trina?”</p><p>Carlson’s face turned red, “We can only hold her for obstruction of justice. Patr— um, Mr. Adams, he never criminalized her. He talked a woman who commuted the crime with him but that was all.”</p><p>“You gotta be kiddin’ me lieu,” Holder shook his head in disbelief. “You know she did it. We all do!”</p><p>“My hands are tied Detective.” The lieutenant said simply.</p><p>“She knew shit she shouldn’t have known! She knew about Jack Linden flying in from O’Hare into SeaTac, they ain’t safe with her on the streets!”</p><p>“Holder...” Sarah said his name softly. He turned to look at her and saw her conveying a plea for his silence. Holder pressed his lips together with great effort, and Linden turned to her boss, “I think there is a way that you can convince Adams to give her up.”</p><p>Carlson bit his cheeks his eyes boring into the detective’s, “What’s that?”</p><p>“Go talk to him, sir. Spend some time hearing his story.”</p><p>Carlson looked away, wiping his hands over his face and turned back to them. “Alright.” He stood up, “I’m sorry for what you went through Detective. You did some fine work,” he looked at Holder. “Both of you did. Detective Linden, we’ll see you back here in two weeks after your medical leave. Detective Holder, I believe you have some paperwork to do.”</p><p>Linden and Holder nodded and turned to leave when Carlson spoke again, “Oh, Detective Linden there’s someone who is desperate to see you. In your office.”</p><p>Sarah’s forehead scrunched in confusion, but she nodded and walked briskly to the office. Inside, sitting at her desk was Jack.</p><p>“Jack?”</p><p>Jack looked up at the sound of her voice then ran and embraced her, “I was worried.”</p><p>She put her right arm around him, “Hey I’m fine. I’m fine.”</p><p>“Yeah lil’ man,” Holder had come into the office behind her. “Your moms kicked ass.”</p><p>“Holder!” She chided.</p><p>Her son pulled away, “You guys got him?”</p><p>Sarah nodded and brushed Jack’s hair back away from his face, “Yeah sweetie, we did.”</p><p>Jack nodded too and let out a small sigh, “I called the station instead of calling Holder. I hoped they would pull him out of the interrogation.”</p><p>Sarah’s eyebrows contracted and she looked back at Holder who smiled, “Got yourself a smart kid there.”</p><p>She looked back at her son fondly, “Yeah he is.” Linden pulled him into a one arm hug then looked back at Holder, “We can probably get out of your hair now. I’ll leave the key under the green flower pot?”</p><p>“Hell no!” Holder cried. “Nice try Linden but you still need adult supervision after that concussion, doctors orders. I mean, little man might be smart, but he’s still got a few years to go. I’ll give you a guys a lift back to the dojo and then come back here. And don’t think it’s escaped my attention that you’re “off duty” so that you don’t have to do the paperwork. Awfully convenient.”</p><p>Sarah smirked, and rolled her eyes. The three of them turned and headed down the hall to the exit. Without looking at him, Sarah spoke softly, “Thanks for being my ride Holder.”</p><p>Holder grinned and gave a small shrug, “It ain’t no thing Linden.”</p>
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